


Till the End

by Scipias



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:33:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29038689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scipias/pseuds/Scipias
Summary: In the year 847, Lukas Schmidt and his best friend, Jean Kirschtein, travel from their hometown of Trost to enlist in the military, with the hopes of eventually being able to join the Military Police. As tensions heighten, and people die though, will he discover secrets of the past, or be able to make an impact on the future?
Relationships: Sasha Blouse/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1 – The 104th training Corps: Footsteps

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So this is my first time posting on AO3, I've already started posting this on FFN so I thought I'd test the waters here with it too. Any feedback is welcome, and enjoy the story!!!

** Chapter 1 – The 104th training Corps: Footsteps **

_Fresh grass, is that what I'm smelling?_

_"_ He's over here…oh fuck"

_I know I'm sitting down, why can't I feel it?_

"Oh no… NO NO NO NO!"

_Smells a bit like pine too, must be sitting against a tree._

"This is bad, this is real bad."

_What's this metallic taste in my mouth…?_

"No shit..aghhh fuck, there's too much blood."

_Blood, oh that makes sense._

"…"

"Don't try to speak, conserve your strength."

"…tell…tell"

"Fuck…he's spitting out blood."

"…I'm sorry….."

"We will, don't worry."

"and tell….Luk…tell…..Lukas"

…

"LUKAS!", Jean yelled, waking the boy with a jolt.

"I swear to the founder Jean, I will kick your ass right here!" Lukas swore hunched over, his head in his hands. After a moment he remembered where he was, sitting in a horse-drawn cart, a ways north of Trost District now by the looks of it now.

"I wouldn't have to yell, if your snoring didn't sound like it was going to tear down the walls." The taller boy retorted as he rested his feet on an open spot of bench across from him.

The shorter of the two rolled his eyes, "Leave it to you to make a joke in bad taste." Lukas spat, as Jean scoffed at him. "Where are we?"

"Just passed Jinae not 5 minutes ago." Jean replied, voice more tempered now.

"Do you two not like each other?" A new voice filled the air. Lukas turned to see another boy to his right, it had not occurred to him that that more people had joined the caravan while he napped.

"What gave you that idea?" Lukas smirked, sarcasm flowing from his mouth. "Lukas Schmidt" the boy extended his hand.

"Marco Bodt" the freckled boy with a look of innocence responded, accepting the formers gesture.

"And this stubborn gangly fella right here is my good buddy Jean Kirschtein." Lukas cocked his head back, pointing at the grayish haired boy behind him.

Jean resigned, leaning forward to shake Marco's hand as well, sighing in annoyance he craned his head towards his compatriot, "Sometimes I really don't know why I'm friends with you Schmiddy."

"Likewise bud…likewise."

"So…" the boy Marco shifted in his seat on the bench, "…you guys are from Trost right? How is it like living in a walled city?"

The two boys nodded in acceptance, "Busy…" Lukas chimed.

"A lot more so since Wall Maria fell…" Jean added somberly.

Marco lowered his head a bit, his voice lowered, "I guess that's a good thing, right? More people surviving after the reclamation mission, right?"

The shorter of the friends swept his shorter black hair to the side, looking down, "Not when the city can't support them all…" Lukas sighed, thoughts of homeless camps and bread lines across his hometown filled the 13-year old's head.

The three sat in silence for a moment until Jean suddenly shot up, his head pointed at the newcomer, "You're from Jinae right?"

Marco nodded, a weak smile on his face, "Yeah."

Jean furrowed his brow turning to his friend, "Hey Schmiddy, didn't we know someone from Jinae?"

The boy looked up, his somber moods shifted, "Yeah…um Cassie I think, Cassie Rommus."

The taller 13-year-old nodded in acknowledgement, "Oh yeah, I remember Cassie."

"Well I should hope so…" Lukas retorted, a half-smile on his face.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Jean blurted, tension rising.

The darker haired friend squinted, "You tried asking her out, and she kicked you where the sun don't shine."

With a pained look, jean put his head in his hand "Right…I remember."

"…rightfully so." Lukas added.

The taller boy shot up, angered by the statement, grabbing his friend by the collar, "DO YOU WANT TO GO SHORTY!"

Lukas shot up in response, "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME HORSEFACE!?"

"Where's that?" the two, both mid swing from striking each other, turned to the recently quiet third boy in their carriage.

"Where's what?" Lukas answered.

"That place you just said?" Marco said innocently, "The place where the sun doesn't shine?"

The duo looked at Marco, then to each other, then back to Marco. Almost forgetting their near fight, they both sat down.

"The Kings jewels?" Jean muttered.

"Your apples and apple tree?" Lukas added.

"Your gatehouse and gate?" Jean ended.

Marco maintained his confused look, too which the duo again looked at each other questioningly. Lukas made a motion to his private parts. The newcomer took a second to comprehend, afterwards a flush of red rushed his face.

"Oh…ohhhhhhhhhh." After a moment of pondering Marco flinched, "Ouch…"

Jean returned his head to his hand utterly defeated, and Lukas gave a chuckle, "You're a funny one Marco, I'll give you that."

Their conversation was quickly interrupted by the driver of the carriage, they were to arrive at the training ground in about 5 minutes.

Jean looked up, "Guess this is it."

"Guess so" Lukas replied lifting his hand in a closed fist. "Till the end."

Jean gave a small smile, reciprocating their old childhood ritual, tapping the back of his own closed fist with his friends. "Till the end."

…

_And here I thought this day was going so well._

"Faster you two!" the Commandant barked.

_If I die today, that would be a mercy._

**_5 minutes earlier_ **

As sense of relief filled the body of Lukas Schmidt as the Commandant passed him over without so much as a word, albeit the boy was suspicious that the man, hard emotionless face apparent, had stared at him for what seemed to be a lot longer than all the other recruits to that point, his relief was quickly shattered by a loud thud next to him. Although the boy of 13 was tense beyond belief at the moment, he took a small joy seeing his best friend, one Jean Kirschtein, get headbutted by the seasoned military man, albeit through the corner of his own eye.

Lukas mentally eye rolled as Commandant Shadis went the rounds with the boy Marco, whom Jean and himself had managed to befriend on the road to the training ground. The freckled boys optimism seemed to go well with his own cynicism and Jean's bull-headedness, but the boys almost fairytale devotion to the king seemed cringey at the very least. Tracking their instructors progress through the corner of his eye, Lukas saw his next victim. Before even he himself had the chance to register that the bald-headed boy by the name of Connie Springer had saluted with the wrong hand entirely, was the shorter lad thrusted up into the air by his head thanks to the Commandant. Schmidt felt himself give off an audible gulp, as he dropped the shorter boy to the ground rushing to the next line.

Lukas, Jean, and even Marco couldn't help but crane their heads at the insanity of one of their fellow recruits. The trio, and it seemed like everyone else in their group, stared at the recruit, a girl with dark-brown hair by the name of Sasha Braus who, remarkably, had been eating a potato in the middle of the formation. The following exchange was exacerbated by Braus handing the Commandant half of the potato, not seeming to understand the dire straits she was in.

The formation was dead quiet for what seemed an eternity, before the Commandant cut through the silence, his voice a hot knife through butter.

"ROWS 1 THOUGH 6, ABOUT FACE!"

Every row the man had passed to that point turned 180 degrees on heel to face him.

"Since Recruit Braus seems assured in screwing over not only herself, but all of you worthless maggots…." The Commandant paused dropping the piece of potato down and crushing the remains under his boot. "…I find it necessary to have you recruits join her in her punishment to hammer in the point to her thick skull…." The Commandant turned and backtracked down the line, leaving the girl, almost comatose in shock and horror in his dust. "…but I am not an unjust man!" He looked around at the recruits. "So I will only pick one of you."

Commandant Shadis's walk slowed to a stop in front of Lukas, and the towering man turned to the boy. "And what do they call you recruit?"

Schmidt thought he could almost see the beginnings of a smile for on the side of Shadis's face as he saluted and answered, "LUKAS SCHMIDT, OF TROST DISTRICT SIR!"

Not missing a beat the Commandant responded, "Recruit Schmidt, you will accompany Recruit Braus on a run around the grounds not to end until the sun sets. If she falters, you will keep pace, if she falls, you will strive to keep her going. You will both end the run together, or founder willing, you will both die from exhaustion. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!"

"YES SIR!"

…

Lukas hurt. Every part of his body was on fire, and he was pretty sure he was in the early stages of dehydration. Still he had done what the Commandant had ordered of him, running the length of the grounds from that moment until the sun dipped under the horizon, all with "potato girl" in tow. She had only gotten a whimper of "I'm sorry." out to him before Shadis had ordered them into silence. To Sasha's credit though, she had lasted the entire time, but once the sun set, collapsed, the boy catching her before the girl from Dauper village hit the deck. Dragging her form would have been reasonably simple, his parents had always stressed being active, and the amount of fights he got in with Jean as well as aside him did not keep him inactive, the only issue being him straining to keep up his own body weight up. As the two made it to the side of one of the barracks, he set her down, leaning up against the wall of the wooden building. Not a second later, he too collapsed, only keeping enough consciousness to maintain that Braus was still breathing, as all other signs of life coming from the girl seemed non-existent.

Soon enough the boy saw a light approaching, seemingly from a lamp, and following that the faintest smell of bread. Not a second passed from his nose registering the smell of bread, did the previously comatose form of the girl beside him shot up with what seemed demonic vigor almost jumping at the source. By the time Lukas was able to hobble his way to the light, its source one of their fellow recruits, a shorter blonde girl with big eyes and a kind face, it seemed like Sasha in her delusion thought she was a god. At that point the boy could not help but agree, as the blonde, whose name was Krista, turned and happily offered him half of the loaf of bread, and a swig of the jug of water.

Lukas downed a decent portion of the water and ate half of his allotted bread with ease. Without a thought he took the other half of bread and handed it to Sasha. While she took it readily, she stopped herself from nearly gorging it for a second, and muttered weakly, "Why?"

He gave her a weak but genuine smile, "It seemed like you needed it more than I did?"

The boy turned to their apparent savior, weakly offering his hand, "Lukas Schultz…thank you. This was really so kind of you!" he smiled.

"Krista Lenz" the girl smiled and offered her hand back. "It was really no problem."

"What are you two doing?" a fourth voice entered the air, its origin coming from a taller girl, with freckles, and shorter hair, who entered the light of the lamp.

The girl called Krista answered nervously, "They've been running all day, so…"

The fourth girl went into a discussion with Krista on whether or not being a good samaritan was worth being caught bringing punished people food. Lukas, in his exhaustion, found the conversation even too cynical for his thinking made a snort.

"I'm sure everyone must love you…" he spit out sarcastically.

"And you…" the tall girl turned to him.

"Potato girl here dragged you along with her to her punishment and you still find the need to give her a portion of your bread. Why is that? Trying to get something more?" the girl added.

The boy rolled his eyes, too tired to grasp the innuendo, and far too tired to deal with this girls garbage world view he scoffed, "Doesn't really have to be a reason, does there? Can't just be doing it out of goodwill." he gave the girl a half-hearted but fully visible shit eating grin. "I can't imagine you'd be out here for anything like that?"

Without a response, Lukas turned to Krista, "Thank you again Krista, I look forward to working with you." and the girl smiled kindly in response. Looking to Sasha, he added, "See you later Sasha." his words void of any negativity unlike with the taller girl. He walked off, still partially hobbling towards the boys barracks. As he walked off, the two girls helped Sasha to her feet, the girl from Dauper realizing she hadn't stopped looking at the boy, and more wildly, she hadn't even taken a bite of the bread he'd given her.

…

_"Now son the key is balance."_

_"But what if I fall?"_

_"You won't. I got you."_

The midday sun and the sudden crash beside him knocked Lukas out of his trance. Taking a second to reacquaint, he looked down to see himself, perfectly balanced and motionless on the Omni Directional maneuvering gear test rig. The same could not be said of the recruit in the rig beside him, a hot-headed kid formerly of Shiganshina District, Eren Yeager. As the instructors aids mark his own exercise as a pass and proceeded to lower him back to earth, Lukas could see his counterpart getting berated by the ever alert Commandant.

After unstrapping from the device, the teen made his way to the group of trainees who had completed the test, and was soon flagged down by his ever cocky best friend who seemed to flaunting his aptitude with the equipment to the bald-headed boy they'd seen yesterday, Connie, and the new addition to their former duo, Marco.

"Schmitty, over here!" Jean motioned.

The teen of 13 walked up. "Hey fellas" he addressed the assembled.

Marco being the kind person that he blatantly was spoke first, "Lukas, how you feeling?"

Schmidt sighed, "Honestly pretty sore."

"Makes sense." Connie added, "I can't imagine what it felt sharing that punishment with Potato Girl."

"Her name's Sasha, and yeah can't say it was all that fun" Lukas chuckled, "But then again, I can't imagine having the Commandant lift you up by your head?"

The bald-headed teen rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, besides I can't imagine this will be the last of our worries."

The group agreed, starting to migrate back to the boys barracks. Entering the door to the complex, Marco spoke up again, "I'm still surprised you were able to sit so still in the harness today, given how sore you must be Lukas."

Lukas who was about to respond was instead cut off by Jean, "Yeah I told you Marco, me and Schmitty here are naturals. No doubt we can make the top 10 and get into the Military Police."

"Yeah Schmidt" Connie added, "We were all talking about how were going to get into the MP's"

"Yep a life of luxury and security for all of us, right buddy…but probably not Connie though" Jean smirked, goading Connie.

The teen smiled weakly, rubbing the back of his neck while Jean and Connie argued, "Yeah…luxury and security."


	2. The 104th Training Corps: Instinct

** Chapter 2 – The 104th Training Corps: Instinct **

It was a clear day, and the sun beat down on the dry cracked patch of earth that served as the parade ground of the 104th training corps. On this particular day the recruits, paired off into duos were in the thick of practicing mock knife fights with one another. This was all except one, his black mop of hair fashioned into what barely resembled a crew, his eyes scanning the throngs of his comrades searching for who was supposed to be his partner that day.

Lukas Schmidt was never quick to annoyance, that was always a trait of his friend Jean, but given the prowling eyes of Commandant Shadis looking for any reason to ream someone, it could be said he was a little ticked off. Hurriedly drifting through the lines of his fellow cadets, the teen felt a combination of minor relief, and moderate anxiety when he saw the ghoulish form of the Commandant some distance away. Relief that the hardened military man was distracted, anxious because he had come upon the duo consisting of his newly made friend, Connie Springer, and the girl he had the acquaintance to meet via absolute torture his first day here, Sasha Blouse. Lukas continued on, his mind having drifted to the important questions of, how strong someone had to be to lift another individual by their head, and how to use that as a joke against the bald-headed boy.

The teens train of thought was stopped by a louder than usual thud coming from a row over from his position. Looking to the source of noise, he found the form of the “intense” boy formerly from Shiganshina, Eren Yeager, splayed out on the dirt, legs hanging over his head. Flanking the teen, were the larger form of the boy who had seemed to become somewhat of a bigger brother figure to a lot of the recruits, Reiner Braun, and the smaller blonde form of who Lukas had recently found out was a girl by the name of Annie Leonhart. Approaching the trio, finding some relief in the fact that one of the teens had to be his sparring partner, he saw the girl push a strand of hair out of her face and behind her ear, then speaking in a nonchalant tone.

“Now it’s your turn to attack me.” the phrase aimed at the bigger boy still on his feet.

It was plain as day that Reiner was hesitant, and Lukas thought he could almost hear a pang of fear in the teens voice as he muttered a refusal. This was quickly added on to by the words of Eren, who was conscious but still in the position that he had been originally seen in.

“You’re gonna teach her the responsibility of being a soldier, right?” the dark-haired boy muttered.

“Yeah Reiner” Schmidt added, garnering the attention of the group, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

At this, the larger boy seemed to have a change of heart and put on a determined look.

“Yeah” Braun sighed, “There are times a soldier can never back down.”

He charged at the girl, “And this is one of them.”

**_THUD!!!_ **

“You know, scratch that.” Lukas winced. “That was pretty bad.”

It had all happened lightning quick. Annie, using Reiner’s momentum from charging towards her, sidestepped, and swept his legs, sending the much larger boy barreling to the earth, landing in much the same position Eren had just recovered from.

Lukas squinted at the display.

He swore he had seen his mother do something similar to that to someone before. His mother, a remarkable woman, known all across Trost for having owned, operated, bartended, and more specifically bounced one of the best pubs in the district at the same time, was known to have mopped the floor with many a patron that caught her bad side. Of course, he wasn’t exempt from his mother’s rage from time to time, even though he knew nearly all the cases were caused by his lack of attention, or stupidity. Jean, who bore witness to many of these cases, even becoming an additional victim of them occasionally, though always warranted, often joked with his friend how no fight the duo got into, with each other or otherwise could compared to the absolute reaming Lukas’s mother could give them if she saw fit.

It was maybe this familiarity with kissing the dirt, or more than likely just plain stupidity on his part that led the boy from Trost to open his mouth.

“I guess it’s my turn then?”

“No” the blonde girl said flatly before turning away to walk off.

“Well, I’m just going to keep following you then.” The boy blurted out, stopping Annie dead in her tracks. “Better than getting chewed out by Shadis, and I think you were supposed to be my training partner in the first place.”

The small blonde girl slowly turned around, and the look on her face was enough to send a chill colder enough to freeze the walls many times over. As he looked too the two other boys, he could see a look of dread also plastered their faces, the larger of the two even still laid out in the position the girl had left him in. As Lukas turned back to face Annie, he had only a second to register that she had closed the distance between them.

_OH SHIT!!!_

If he were honest, Lukas would have expected himself to be eating the dried crusted ground below him at the moment. Instead, the moment had passed, and he had glanced down to see his leg wedged in between hers. While it hadn’t knocked Annie off balance, it had shifted his weight enough to where she couldn’t provide enough momentum to sweep him to the ground.

In that moment, it may have been adrenaline, but in addition to the shocked expression the two other boys carried on their faces, which he saw through the corner of his eye, he swore he saw the girls normally lifeless unchanging eyes dilate in surprise, maybe even shock. Lukas’s head felt like it was about to burst out of his skull, and when he thought about it, the same could be said of all of his appendages.

_Think this must be the biggest rush of adrenaline I’ve ever had._

Remembering to thank his mother the next time he saw her, the boy decided not to let the pause go to waste. Shifting his weight, Lukas sought to use the girl’s technique against her but seconds later looked to see the blonde had instead used his counter against him. Not wanting to lose the initiative, he instead shifted his stance once more, now hoping to sweep her forward, over his back and onto the ground. This instead proved to be a fatal mistake as Annie took the minor amount of motion he made to counter conclusively, sweeping both of his legs, and sending him flying forward, the last thing him seeing being the ground rushing up to meet him.

Lukas felt his body be flipped onto his back and as he reopened his eyes the rush of sunlight filled his view. The hulking figure of Reiner Braun stood over him, a hint of concern in his eyes.

“Schmidt, you okay buddy?” the teen offered his hand, which Lukas took. “Pretty sure you blacked out for a second there.”

The messy-haired boy nodded in agreement, looking to see his previous combatant now occupied with pinning Eren to the ground with the dummy knife. After another few seconds to get his head on straight, Lukas heard the one-way conversation the two were having. The cynic in him almost believed her, the exercise in itself wasn’t all that useful militarily speaking given the advent of ODM gear, although in day-to-day use, especially in Trost nowadays might be useful. He couldn’t discount the fact that only the cream of the crop were the only ones allowed the privilege of joining the Military Police, and while he knew that was a lot of the reason his friend Jean pushed so hard to excel here, Lukas knew he himself didn’t share that drive. While he did have a good work ethic, drive was something he had struggled with for awhile now, something the boy had tried to ignore, and when the blonde mentioned her distrust of idealism, the boy seemed to remember things he really didn’t want too.

Lukas was broken from this line of thought as Annie released Eren, dropping the dummy knife at his side. Walking past him and Reiner towards the crowd, they could be forgiven for barely being able to hear the blonde mutter something to the shorter of them.

“You didn’t put enough momentum in your swing.” Lukas hadn’t even registered the context of what she had said before she continued, “Remember that for next time.”

Not breaking her stride, Annie disappeared into the next row of recruits. Rising from the ground, Eren turned to him.

“I think that was a compliment.”

Lukas scratched his head in confusion, before a look of realization graced his face.

“WAIT…WHAT DOES SHE MEAN NEXT TIME!!!”

…

Sasha Blouse could confidently say that she had pretty darn good instincts. Whether it was picking up on people, food, animals, food, weather, or food, the girl from the village of Dauper felt she could read a room pretty well. It all started during dinner, in which she had barley soup, which was delicious, and a loaf of bread, also really good, but her meal was interrupted by the loud boasting coming from the table beside them. Jean, the source of the commotion, who had already gathered the reputation of being unusually cocky, was spouting to anyone and everyone around him, which included one black-haired teen that particularly stood out to the brunette, about his apparent skill with ODM gear.

The situation quickly escalated as Jean began to exchange words with Eren, who had been seated at her own table. The boys both stood up with a jolt garnering the attention of the whole room, while Sasha noticed the black-haired teen, Lukas, a look of annoyance on his face, rub his temples before standing up to confront the two. The girl honestly didn’t know what lead her to pay attention to the exchange, she still had food on her plate and if anything, she knew not to waste food, but as soon as that third boy stood up, the events seemed to garner her attention more.

Sasha watched as Lukas tried to force his way in between the two, seeing him mouth words akin to “stop”, “idiot”, and “horse-face”, which kinda made her smile. She didn’t know what to think of the boy frankly, he had suffered the same punishment she had on that first day, which had been her fault entirely, but saw it necessary to not to just leave her out there but offer her some of his entirely deserved bread. Yet when she saw his expression, there was no sense of pity for the brunette, or even anger directed at her, just a smile. Just a genuine smile.

The girl looked back up at the trio, the look of futility now plastered on Lukas’s face he backed off the quarreling duo looking unusually uncomfortable as he sat back down, not seconds before Eren took Jean down to the ground. The girl ignored the commotion of that, instead noticing the now seated Lukas rubbing the temples of his head even more vigorously now. Sasha felt the pang of something hit her before it was immediately interrupted by the sudden appearance of Commandant Shadis, who question the cause of the commotion. The brunette was put into a state of shock and near-death embarrassment when Mikasa who had been sitting next to her, suddenly convicted Sasha of farting. The look of disgust graced the Commandants face as he exited, and the brunette’s further embarrassment was ceased as the black-haired girl stuck an already prepared loaf of bread into Sasha’s mouth. A more than adequate peace offering or more like bribe.

As the girl from Dauper contently snacked on her edible bribe, that panging feeling returned to her as she saw the teen, black mop of short hair upon his head, walk out of the building. Sasha felt conflicted, usually her instincts told her what to do, but for some reason they felt…fuzzy. She remembered something the smaller blonde, Krista, had told her. She said that the taller girl go and talk to Lukas. The brunette had noted that when she had mentioned this, that the smaller girl had this knowing look about her, like she saw something Sasha didn’t. The Dauper native didn’t have a clue what that meant but figured she could go and talk to the boy, at least to apologize for that first day.

The brunette took a step outside, the loaf of Mikasa’s bribing bread still in hand because honestly, she was still hungry. She didn’t have to look far as the boy was seated on the stairs leading up to the mess hall. Sasha felt a sudden wave of apprehension, and half considered turning back into the building before Lukas craned his head back, having heard the opening of the door.

“Oh, hey Sasha.” He spoke softly but clearly.

There was a pause before she found herself able to respond, “Oh, hi Lukas.” The brunette responded talking a few steps closer to him. “I just saw you walk out here all in a rush, and wanted to see if you were ok?”

A small look of surprise lit up his face, and the girl noticed he had a dullish green eye color, which she thought contrasted with his hair quite well. “Oh thanks, I appreciate the concern…” he started with a small smile present, “but you really didn’t have too. Just got a small headache is all. Side effect of being friends with Jean I guess.” He joked, getting a chuckle from the both of them.

“You can sit down if you want?” he motioned to the open space on the step beside him.

Sasha found herself unconsciously sitting down next to the boy, after a moment she spoke up, “I’m sorry Shadis dragged you into that punishment with me the first day.”

A bit nervous as she looked over at him, he just shrugged, “It’s no big deal, not like anyone expected that.”

The brunette nodded in agreement, feeling a bit less anxious now. The two sat there, a couple of more minutes passing under a clear star lit sky.

“So, tell me about where you are from?” Lukas questioned, the context almost surprising the girl.

Sasha fumbled, “Oh, I doubt it would be all that interesting to hear.”

“Try me.” The boy answered, the same genuine smile that he carried that first night. No one had ever tried to talk this in-depth with the brunette before, even Krista, arguably the nicest person she had met here if not anywhere hadn’t really asked her too much of her origins.

The teens smile, paired with his eyes, which attentively waited for her to respond had had the affect of melting any anxiety she had and seemingly made her words flow out easier than it had been the entire time she had been there. Sasha talked about her town, her pa, the forest she hunted in, the stream she had played in as a child, all that and anything that came to mind. Whenever she doubted that the boy had been paying attention, he had reassured her by having continued to ask questions, and even having told her some stories of his own. The brunette didn’t know how much time had passed before she caught something that she had been doing.

“And then mah pa and I, unlike y’all city folk…” the girl cut herself off mid-sentence realizing she had been speaking like she had never left Dauper.

Lukas who had never stopped listening, and had not even shown any recognition or care of her change in accent furrowed his brow in confusion to why the girl had stopped so suddenly, “You ok Sasha?”

Quickly standing up, and with a face more beet red than a ripe apple only hidden from the boy through the sheer fact that it had been dark outside, the girl blurted out a haste fully made excuse.

“Oh…I forgot something in the mess hall. I…uh…uhhh…I’ll see you later.”

Lukas sat there confused, in the spot where he had spent the last hour talking with the girl, wondering what had caused her to up and leave so quickly.

_Well that was odd…_


	3. The 104th Training Corps: Fight & Flight

** Chapter 3 – The 104th Training Corps: Fight & Flight **

“WE’RE LOSING HIM!!!”

“Slow down man.”

“HE’S BLEEDING OUT!!!”

“Connie….”

“WE ALMOST GOT HIM!!!”

“For fucks sake Springer slow down!”

“BUT WE CAN SAVE HIM!!!”

“CUEBALL I SAID SLOW YOUR DAMN ROLL, YOU’RE HURTING THE GUY!!!”

“Oh…sorry Armin.”

Lukas craned his head back in annoyance rolling his eyes. He, Connie, and Armin were situated in one of the many rooms that served as a classroom for the recruits. Currently, the teens group, and around a dozen other groups of his comrades were in the midst of first-aid drills, and Connie, in his haste, or what Lukas would call his stupidity, had used nearly all of their dressing, wrapping up nearly the whole upper half of the quiet blonde boys’ body so tight that the bookish teens circulation was nearly cut off.

Schmidt looked back down at his mummified comrade, “You ok?”

Armin, who’s only visible parts of his face were his mouth and a single one of his eyes nodded, “Yeah…I think so.”

“What in the walls?!?!” The trio turned to see Krista, who had been appointed the recruit supervisor for this exercise.

Without pause Connie turned his head to see his dark-haired friend pointing at him, “Oh thanks a lot man.” He deadpanned sarcastically.

“No problem” Lukas nodded turning to the smaller blonde girl, “Any chance we could get more dressing and bandages?”

She gave him one of her trademark smiles, “Well since you asked so nicely.” She then turned to Springer, hands on her hips, and an annoyed expression on her face. “You’re coming with me though Connie, if any of the instructors ask why we need more medical supplies, you’ll be the one explaining to them why.”

_I don’t think I’ve ever seen Krista annoyed before._

Frankly, Lukas thought that even annoyed Krista didn’t look like she’d harm a fly. Albeit after some more thought he reckoned he shouldn’t be in the business of underestimating people anymore, case in point smaller blondes. He unconsciously rubbed his bruised right side recalling his most recent “sparring session” with Annie. The girl had taken an interest in using the teen as a “training partner” after the latter proved “almost barely confident” in her words at defending himself, and although those sessions were few and far between, the bruises said otherwise.

_Oh, how I do love my life as a human punching bag._

Lukas saw Connie dip his head in shame as he followed Krista out of the room. At that, Lukas turned around and started to help Armin out of the poorly wrapped dressing. He hadn’t talked to the blonde much during his time at the training, the developing rivalry between Eren and his friend Jean kind of left that trio out of his sphere most of the time, but even from his short time reacting with the bookish teen, Lukas knew he was a decent guy, not to mention incredibly smart.

“Looks like Eren and Jean are fighting again.” The blonde broke the silence between the two.

The Trost native looked over his shoulder to see the two in question, viciously trying to have at each other, only separated by the timely intervention of one Mikasa Ackerman. The argument seemed to have been instigated by one of them applying a head wrap to the other too tightly and the tension seemed to rise from there. Lukas could hear a number of expletives, followed by the almost assured use of “shrimp” against Eren, and “horse-face” against Jean.

The dark-haired boy chuckled before turning back to the task at hand. Before long Armin spoke out again, “Who do you think started it?”

Lukas shrugged, “Who’s to say, Jean could’ve been bragging again, or Eren could’ve been preaching again, take your bet.”

Armin sighed, the two having finished unwrapping the dressing of Connie’s botch job, “You know he’s not that bad, Eren I mean.”

The taller teen nodded his head taking a seat next to his blonde comrade. “I know.” He took a breath recalling all the times he interacted with Jaeger without his friend being there. “Why? Did you think Jean was a bad person?”

The bookish teen was almost thrown off by the response, anxiously blurting out, “No no, I didn’t mean that at all!”

Lukas smiled reassuring the blonde, “It’s alright. I know Jean can be abrasive at the best of times, but deep down he is a good guy.”

Armin recovered, his voice calming once more, “I don’t doubt, it’s just you two seem so….”

“different?” the dark-haired boy cut him off.

“yeah”

“You’re not wrong” Lukas said shifting in his seat, “but on the contrary I could say that about Eren and yourself?”

“That’s true I guess.”

“And it works out don’t you think?”

Armin nodded.

The taller teen cleared his throat, “But I’ll give it to you, me and ol’ horse-face did become friends under some odd circumstances.”

The blonde’s brow rose, “How do you mean?”

“Well…” Lukas started, “it all started with a fight.”

“Between?”

Lukas chuckled, “Each other…”

…

_(YEAR 842, TROST DISTRICT)_

Lukas was hungry, even more so than usual as he shuffled into the school cafeteria for lunch. The 8-year-old had woken up late for school that day, and in his rush had forgotten to grab something to eat for breakfast. Drifting through the rows of tables, he glanced excitedly down at his bagged lunch. His mother had packed him a jelly sandwich and an apple, a simple lunch, but one he always appreciated, much more so today.

The dark-haired boy’s enjoyment was short lived though as he failed to look up soon enough at another child walking in the opposite direction. The collision proved destructive, his counterparts own lunch falling from a broken bag to the floor, and its contents making an audible splat on the wooden foundation of the lunchroom. The two boys looked down to see the remains of what Lukas thought was an omelet. The child, only marginally shorter than his schoolmate, had barely looked up for a second, seeing a scowl upon the other child's face, before feeling his own lunch knocked from his hand. After a similar splat, that Lukas could only assume was his jelly sandwich, the boy felt his body well with anger, and seeing his counterpart, his foe, exhibiting the same reaction, the boy spit out.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU JERK!!!" Lukas busted out.

His counterpart, a boy sporting shorter greyish hair, took a step forward, pointing at the ground "YOU KNOCKED OVER MY LUNCH!!!”

The black-haired kid threw his arms up in the air, “YOU SHOULD WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING THEN!!!”

“NO…YOU SHOULD WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING YOU MIDGET!!!”

Lukas was taken aback by the insult, “YOU’RE BARELY TALLER THAN ME HORSE-FACE!!!”

The other boy did a spit take, “WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?!”

“YOU HEARD ME!!!”

Not a second later, both the boys had thrown punches at each other, the fight escalating from there.

…

The two boys walked down the steps of the school, sporting a combination of black eyes, fat lips, bruises, and ripped and torn clothing. Both given demerits and required to have a parent sign them by the next school day the two walked shamefully out of the school in silence, not saying a word as the two went separate ways. 

Lukas continued down the street, staring at the demerit in his hand, the piece of paper garnering his full attention. Thoughts of the death sentence that awaited him filled his mind, a beating, miles beyond what that other boy, Jean, had inflicted was in his near future, he could already see it. A shutter went down his spine as his train of thought was broken by a noise behind him. He turned around to see that a ways down the street, a larger kid and a known bully at his school was tormenting some other kid. As the black-haired kid focused in on the situation a little more, he noticed that that tormented kid was the jerk he had gotten into the fight with, the boy Jean.

The bully laughed as he pushed the grayish haired kid to the ground, “Whatcha going to do mommas boy?”

Lukas didn’t know if it was lack of self-preservation, pity, or a kind of respect of the kid he had gone toe to toe with, but the shorter kid found himself doubling back. Using all of his strength he turned the larger bully around and landed his fist into the kid’s stomach. 

“Ugh where did you come from brat.” The bully coughed, hunched over from the hit.

The shorter boy felt a sense of accomplishment, but that was soon overshadowed by the bully who had recovered faster than expected. Lukas felt himself get tackled to the ground, the big oaf trying to pummel his face in while he tried haphazardly to block the strikes with his hands. The assault couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds but to Lukas it felt like forever. It had taken the bully a few good hits to the smaller boy’s credit but finally his defense broke. The black-haired boy flinched as the bully cocked his arm back to punch the defenseless kid. The moment passed though, and shocked, Lukas looked up to see that Jean had jumped on the back of the bully, trying to choke him, but also hanging on for dear life.

Lukas stumbled to his feet as the bully finally shook off Jean, the kid falling to the ground behind him. Having the realization that even with the two of them that this was a losing fight, the smaller boy figured something decisive had to be done. Though unweighted by the grey-haired boy, the bully was still catching his breath, and coming to terms with his decision, Lukas charged the bully. Getting a running start, the black-haired boy swung his leg, landing his foot directly into the bully’s groin. The larger boy dropped to his knees, a loud groan exiting his mouth. Suddenly, Jean seemed to appear from nowhere, throwing a punch into the downed bully’s jaw. The larger boy fell to the ground like a bag of bricks, clearly out for the count.

The boys look at each other for a moment, no one had witnessed their fight but the two unconsciously knew they shouldn't stay there, not wanting to get caught holding the bag. The two ran off, making it a few blocks before turning on to one of Trost's main roadways. Catching their breaths, the boys leaned up against a building but exhausted quickly slid down it, the two sitting on the street now. They sat there in silence for what seemed to be awhile but in reality, was only a couple minutes. Then breaking the silence, Lukas started chuckling.

Grin on his face he blurted out, "You clocked him straight in the jaw!" 

After a moment the grey-haired kid joined into the laughter, "Yeah...and you kicked him straight in the privates." Jean could barely get his words out, "Did you see his face?"

The shorter boy made an impression of the bully’s face after the kick and the two went into screaming laughter. After the two settled down Jean turned to him, in a serious tone he spoke," Thank you...you didn't have to do that."

Lukas nodded, “You’re welcome.” The shorter boy extended his hand, “Lukas.”

The other boy paused a second before returning the gesture, “Jean.”

The boys conversed briefly before getting back up. Realizing that both had to go their separate ways, they looked at each other.”

Jean rubbed the back of his neck almost nervously, “So…see ya tomorrow midget?”

Lukas held a confused look for only a moment before reverting back to a small smile, “Yeah…see ya tomorrow horse-face.”

…

_(PRESENT DAY)_

“And we’ve been friends ever since.” Lukas ended.

“Wow” Armin said with a weak smile, “Hard to believe you were that hot-headed.”

The dark-haired teen smirked, “Honestly that was the exception” He shifted in his seat, “I’ve never been opposed to getting my hands dirty, but I do try to avoid it when possible.”

“And how does that work with Annie?” The bookish teen replied, a look of innocence trying to hide a small grin.

Lukas gave him the side eye, and chuckled, “Arlert’s got a sense of humor, who would’ve thunk” Sighing, he rubbed another one of his many bruises attributed to the quiet girl, “It doesn’t.” he smirked.

Armin smiled as they sat there in silence for another moment. The two watched as Eren and Jean had begrudgingly gotten back to the exercise, this time under the watchful eye of Mikasa.

“My parents used to tell me that life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not.” Lukas sighed, “I can’t say why I did any number of things that day, but I know, given the opportunity, I wouldn’t change any of it.” He turned to the blonde, “Would you?”

Armin smiled and nodded, “No.” the blonde glanced at Eren and Mikasa across the room, “No, I wouldn’t.”

…

“Oi, Lukas”

It was about an hour before dinnertime when Connie called the black-haired teen over. His bald-headed friend was standing just outside the boy’s barracks talking to Jean, and Marco.

“What’s up Connie.” Lukas said as he walked up, nodding to his two other friends respectfully.

“I was just telling these two how I got some one-on-one time with Krista…” the bald-headed boy smirked.

**_SMACK!!!_ **

Lukas’s open palm collided with the back of Connie’s head getting a laugh from Jean, and a look of concern from Marco.

“WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?!?!” the boy from Ragako village screamed.

“You know what that was for.” Lukas said flatly.

Connie rubbed his head, “Well as least I’ve spoken with Krista longer than Jean has with Mikasa.”

**_SMACK!!!_ **

This time it was Jean’s hand hitting home on the same spot-on Connie’s head.

Marco spoke up, “Connie please stop.”

“Yeah man” Lukas added, “Don’t make it 3 for 3.”

The bald-headed team stood there now vigorously rubbing a visible welt on the back of his head. Thinking he would stop the other three turned, but as they did Springer spoke once more, looking at the black-haired boy.

“Well at least I don’t have to compete with a potato.”

**_SMACK!!!_ **

Before the three boys could turn around to respond, Connie what knocked to the floor by another well place smack to the back of the head, this time from Krista of all people. The three stood in shock from seeing who was considered the nicest of all the cadets, practically divinity incarnate, then apologize to the boy and walk off without another word. Lukas scratched his head while Marco tried helping Connie to his feet.

_What Connie said didn’t even make any sense?!?!_


	4. THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: FEELING

** CHAPTER 4 - THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: FEELING **

The cool wind flew past his face, and the smell of pine was ever present in the air, even at this speed. The final obstacle ahead, three staggered walls suspended above the forest floor had proved a challenge for many of his fellow cadets so far, but Lukas felt a sense of focus. Ever since the 104th had been introduced to the use of ODM gear, the teen had found that all the activities surrounding the main tool of their trade to be almost calming to him. Approaching the walls ahead, the black-haired boy angled up, immediately detaching his cables; something most of his fellow cadets had done much closer to the obstacle. As his cables returned to their housings at his side, Lukas felt the momentum from his last swing arc him over the top of the first wall, gravity taking over as his body fell below the second wall in one fluid motion. As if in slow motion he saw the cable launchers attached to his waist clear the bottom of the second wall and immediately he shot out his cables once more hearing them hit the nearby trees as the rest of his body cleared the bottom of the second wall. His cables quickly propelled him over the third and final wall and before long he was back in open air.

_Wasn't expecting that to go as smoothly as it did._

As Lukas whipped through the trees in route to the finishing point, he was hit by an odd feeling. It felt like his whole body was humming, but as the teen looked to his hands they weren't shaking, the feeling was coming from beneath his skin. As that thought went through his head, the feeling was compounded by his vision growing fuzzy. Originally feeling concern over this as he was pretty high up in the air and traveling rather fast, he then had the realization that even though his vision was blurred, somehow, he could still see perfectly fine. The boy swung as normally as usual and he even noticed one of his comrades pass him beginning the course. Confusion struck the black-haired boys face as he quickly whipped his eyes mid swing, and as he opened his eyes once more, the feeling had suddenly disappeared. Lukas's body had returned to normal, no buzzing, and no blurred vision.

_What just happened?_

A few moments later, still confused but resolved to figure out this out later, Lukas landed on the platform where he had started the course, followed closely by the other members of the group that had run the course with him which in this case was Eren, Marco, Krista, and naturally Ymir. The group went to attention as Commandant Shadis came to grade them. The hardened military man looked at each individual recruit, stating their time then checking their tanks with a tap of his fist to determine how much gas each teen had left.

“Recruit Ymir” the Commandant droned, “5 minutes 38 seconds, 50% gas remaining.”

The freckled teen content that she passed, the requirement being 6 minutes, nodded slightly before the Commandant moved on.

“Recruit Lenz, 5 minutes 25 seconds, 70% gas remaining. Good work on conserving your gas.”

“Thank you, sir.” The small blonde said saluting as the man moved on.

“Recruit Bodt, 5 minutes 13 seconds, 60% gas remaining. Excellent management between your speed and gas.”

“Sir” Marco saluted, a trace of a smile on his face.

“Recruit Yeager, 5 minutes 6 seconds, 40% gas remaining. Impressive speed, but too eager on using gas.”

Eren saluted, looking defeated but hopefully, and not saying a word.

“Recruit Schmidt” Lukas saluted, “4 minutes 55 seconds, 60% gas remaining, exemplary work.” Shadis paused before continuing, “You have overtaken Recruit Kirschtein’s spot in second by 3 seconds and are only 10 seconds off Recruit Ackerman’s time in first.”

“Thank you, sir.” Lukas smiled internally, having bested his friend by such a slim margin.

The Commandant took a step back looking to address the group again, “Recruits you’re dismissed.” He spoke before walking off to evaluate the next group. The five relaxed and started walking to the armory to deposit their ODM gear. Lukas had only walked a few steps, Marco at his side, before Eren caught up to the two.

“Hey Lukas” the boy started.

The taller teen turned his head, “Oh, hey Eren, what’s up?”

The boy formerly of Shiganshina slowed his pace to match the two boys, “How’d you do it?”

Lukas furrowed his brow, “What do you mean?”

“Your ODM skills.” Eren looked intently at him.

Lukas scratched the back of his head, “I mean I appreciate the compliment, but Mikasa beat me by 10 seconds. Wouldn’t you be better off asking her?”

Marco patted his friend on the shoulder, “Don’t sell yourself short Lukas, yours and Jean’s ODM scores have been consistently better than a lot of ours.”

Eren scoffed at the sound of his rival’s name but then smiled at Lukas, “Yeah but I’ve seen Mikasa’s scores too, she’s faster but you use less gas.” The boy paused before continuing. “And the way you go about it, it’s…different.”

Lukas looked down thinking about the question. As he thought, a flurry of emotions came over him. Happiness, then regret, sadness, then guilt, and finally pain.

_…I’m sorry…_

“Lukas are you alright?” the boy broke from his trance to see Marco look at him with concern.

“Yeah…. I’m fine…just zoned out there for a second.” He responded turning back to Eren.

“You depend on the equipment too much.” Lukas stated. “and you’re too tense while you use it.”

The boy expected Eren to kickback at his criticism, but the teen looked at him, intently waiting for him to continue.

“You don’t need to use the equipment for every movement. If you need to fall, let gravity help you do it, and if you need to ascend or drift in a direction, let the momentum from your last swing take some of the burden.”

Eren nodded, “And how do I know when to do that?”

Lukas wringed his hands, “It’s a feeling.” The boy smirked a little bit, “If you’re tense, your body isn’t going to read what your mind wants to do fast enough.” He put his hand on Eren’s shoulder, “After that, it’s just practice.”

Eren smiled, confidence renewed, “You’ve must get a lot of practice then.” He joked.

“No” Lukas shrugged, “Nothing like that.”

_Liar._

“Just fortunate I guess.”

…

The three boys deposited their equipment back with the quartermaster and exited the armory. Eren, more than likely intending to meet back up with Armin and Mikasa veered off towards the mess hall while Marco headed in the direction of the boy’s barracks. Lukas stood there for a moment when he saw a familiar brunette-haired girl walk up on her way to the armory.

“Hey Sasha” he friendly greeted the teen.

The brunette froze for a second having not seen him and seemed to stumble out her words, “Oh…hey…uh…uh…”

Before the girl from Dauper could finish the sentence, she rushed through the open door of the armory, passing an exiting Krista and Ymir.

“Well, that was odd?” Lukas stated out loud.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the freckled teen responded, as the two girls walked up.

“No” the boy rolled his eyes, “I did just say it was odd.” He said sarcastically.

Ymir shook her head, as the shorter girl responded this time. “Ymir, be nice.”

Pinching the temple of her nose, the freckled girl looked back up, “I don’t understand how you can get the ice queen to talk to you, but not understand why someone as blatantly outward as potato girl barely speaks to you.”

Lukas shrugged, “Annie throws a lot more punches at me than words, and to be frank I’m only there because she doesn’t want to deal with Mikasa to be dotting over Eren if they were to fight.”

_I swear Eren owes me big for that._

Ymir sighed, shaking her head in annoyance was going to respond but was cut off by Krista.

“I may know why Sasha isn’t talking to you.”

Lukas turned his head to the blonde, eyebrow raised, “Why?”

“Well because…” she shuttered for a moment, “she’s embarrassed. Sasha told me she started speaking to you in her hometown accent by accident.”

Not a complete lie, as Sasha had told the blonde of that night, but the brunette had also told her of some other things too. Things, that while Sasha couldn’t interpret herself, as the brunette wasn’t completely understanding what she was feeling, Krista could she clear as day. She liked him; she just didn’t quite figure out that she liked him in “that” way. Of course, Sasha swore the blonde to silence, and if anything, Krista knew she was good at keeping secrets.

“Oh!” a look of realization took Lukas’s face, as Ymir facepalmed. “That’s nothing to be embarrassed about. To be honest I barely even recognized it.” The boy smiled.

Krista smiled back at the teen. In her experience Lukas had always been one of the nicer boys, he made it blatantly obvious what he thought of everyone, yet never shirked off helping someone out. Albeit the boy had a tendency to get into stupid situations, often headfirst and willingly, he seemed to be loyal to a fault, and in this particular case, very, very thick-headed.

…

Lukas stood leaning against a post that supported the overhang leading to the mess hall. It was about 10 minutes before dinner, and he planned to force Sasha to talk to him by cutting the brunette off from entering the only place she was sure to go to at this time. Lukas chuckled and shook his head quietly.

_Annie may be right. I might actually have a death wish._

Soon enough Lukas saw the brunette approach, eager to be one of the first to receive her food. As she closed in on the staircase leading up to the mess hall, the boy stepped out into to the way. The look off surprise on her face was combined with her drive to eat and then her apparent embarrassment quickly following.

“Hey Sasha.” The boy said calmly.

The girl shuffled around trying to find a way around the teen but to no avail, “Uh….heyyyyy Lukas, nice to see you here…haha” she pointed behind him, “Do you mind….if I get around you?”

“We need to talk.” Lukas said flatly.

Sasha was wringing her fingers now, “What…what about?”

The black-haired teen tilted his head knowingly,” You’ve been avoiding me.”

Lukas could see a shade of red gather on the brunette’s face as one of her leg’s started bobbing up and down, “I…uh…don’t know what you mean?” she struggled to get out.

The boy sighed, “Krista told me…”

“WHAT!!!” the girl from Dauper jumped back in shock.

“…about how you were embarrassed about your accent.” Lukas finished.

The brunette calmed down a touch, and still beet red, whimpered out a meek, “Oh.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t be embarrassed about it.” The boy smiled, “It sounded pretty nice and honestly it showed how passionate you were about where you grew up.”

It took a moment for Sasha to respond, “You don’t think it’s weird?”

Lukas was almost taken aback by this, “Of course not!”

After a moment, the boy could see the brunette was still apprehensive, and he sighed, “If you want, I could show you something I’m self-conscious about.”

The girl thought it over for a second and gave a quiet nod. Lukas smirked, “Just promise me…you won’t get too grossed out?”

Sasha, admittedly confused, nodded her head a bit hesitantly this time. Registering her acceptance, the brunette saw the boy unbutton the top two buttons of his shirt, he pulled the shirt back revealing what looked like a large bruise running a portion of the way across his collar bone. Looking closer, Sasha could tell now that it wasn’t a bruise as instead of it being all dark it consisted of some light but still noticeable yellow and greenish splotches.

“Birthmark?” she questioned, her voice calm again.

“Yeah.” Lukas replied sheepishly, “It’s…it’s not too gross right?”

Sasha could tell that the boy was truly embarrassed about the spot. In truth, she didn’t find anything off setting about the birthmark, honestly if he hadn’t pointed it out, she would have figured it was a bruise anyway, but the gesture was not lost on her. Lukas had gone out of his way to prove that he didn’t find her accent weird, even when she was determined to avoid the conversation all together, and that gave the girl from Dauper a warm feeling. Noting this, she also came to the realization that her eyes had drifted to the rest of what was his exposed chest. It was toned, and a little muscular, and she liked it, and then the realization hit her about the same time the flush did to her face. Sasha liked him, not only that, she “ **LIKED”** him.

“Sasha…you ok?” Lukas said, totally oblivious to the girl’s thoughts.

“Yeah…” the brunette recovered quickly. “Thank you.”

The boy crooked his head as he buttoned back up his shirt, “For what?”

“For caring.” She said, all nervousness gone from her voice.

He gave her another genuine smile, “No problem.”

Lukas started up the steps before turning around again, “You’re welcome to come sit with us. Marco’s nice, Jean’s…. tolerable, and Connie…well you know Connie.”

Sasha smiled, food had all but been forgotten up until that point, “I’d like that”, she said as she followed the boy into the mess hall.


	5. THE 104th TRAINING CORPS: DISTRESS PT.1

** CHAPTER 5 – THE 104th TRAINING CORPS: DISTRESS PT.1 **

Another clear and sunny day, only a few sparse clouds in the sky, and hard dry ground beneath him. Lukas Schmidt had found that he had acclimated to the weather of the southern area of Wall Rose, in truth not that much different from Trost for obvious reasons, but in this case devoid of settlements, people, and most importantly at this moment anything interesting to look at. The only saving grace was a slight breeze that made the day bearable as he and his comrades rode on horseback for this training exercise.

Lead by Marco, with Armin tasked with writing an account of the day-to-day happenings, the group included Eren, Jean, Krista, Connie, Sasha, and himself. Lukas was content with this, most of his fellow cadets were ones he hung around, and though he knew at least Jean wouldn’t admit it, the both of them had grown close with a few of the, making a small friend group. There was Marco, who despite being a little innocent still was ever the optimist, and one of the kindest people Lukas had ever met, minus maybe Krista. Connie, while never being the most logical person always meant well, seemed to have an unending supply of jokes, most of which he botched the delivery of, and was never opposed to joining Lukas to prank Jean. Finally, there was Sasha, who after her talk with the boy had clicked into their group pretty well. The teen had never had any issue talking to girls but had found that talking to the brunette was incredibly easy. The feeling seemed likewise as while the girl from Dauper had decided to keep her accent masked while talking to other people, she was a lot less hesitant now to speak in her native tongue to him often slipping in and out of it while they were alone. Lukas thought it was a sweet gesture, and despite the girls almost crazed fascination with food, which the black-haired boy found more amusing than odd, he found that they had become pretty close, only second to his friendship with Jean.

As the group trotted along, Lukas felt a familiar buzzing start radiating from his core spreading to all of his limbs, and before long he felt his eyes start to get hazey.

_Not again, give me a break…_

This strange set of symptoms, which the boy had first noticed during ODM exercises, but had realized first occurred when he had sparred Annie for the first time, had puzzled Lukas to his wits end. The “feeling” which was how he termed it seemed to happen randomly, could last anywhere from a few seconds to half an hour, but always seemed to consist of a buzzing feeling and his sight becoming “blurred” in a way. Had those been the only things though, Lukas would have felt a lot more fortunate. He had counted times now where he would experience the buzzing take on a burning or almost freezing feel, blobs of color would flood his blurred vision constantly, though it usually was only one color at a time, and then there was his head. It could be as simple as a feeling of someone lightly tapping their finger on his skull, or in this case, someone slamming his ear into a table constantly.

_Red blurs, cold feeling, and a splitting headache. Can’t ever be consistent, can we?_

“Lukas…” a feminine voice called from behind him, “…you ok?”

The boy turned to see Sasha atop her horse, trotting along a bit behind him alongside Connie.

“Yeah Sash” he smirked, feigning a confused face, “I’m fine.”

At that, the brunette raised her eyebrow, “You sure….?”, She questioned accusingly.

_Damn that hunter’s instinct of hers._

Lukas continued his poker face, “Yeah…fine.” The boy diverted the conversation, “Must almost be lunch time.” He smiled

“I hope so…” the girl responded almost to a fault, “I’m soooooo hungry, I bet even those rations would…wait?” Sasha squinted her eyes.

_Fuck. Worth a shot…_

“Nice try Lukas.” She said almost seriously, “Really, what’s wrong? You can tell me!”

The black-haired boy gave a half chuckle, he could tell she really cared. Still, he doubted anyone would take his symptoms at face value, and he would be damned if this got in the way of his training.

Taking his pause as a signal to continue, the brunette pushed on, “Lukas…come on, Lukas.” She repeated trying to goad him. “Lukas….Luuuuuukas…..LuLu…….please.”

The boy head to hand sighed hearing Sasha’s nickname for him and almost relenting until an unlikely savior came in the form of his bald-headed friend.

“Jeez Sasha get off his back, almost sounds like you like the guy.” Connie said half-heartedly, still in a bored daze on his horse.

Had it not been the timely intervention of the small blonde in the rear of the group, no doubt everybody would have saw the brunette, face red in embarrassment, failing to form some semblance of a reply. “Sasha’s just worried about a comrade, right?” Krista said aiming the statement and a slightly smirked face at the other girl.

The girl from Dauper having recovered slightly quickly fumbled out a hurried, “Yeah…yeah that’s all it is…”

The interaction having flown over both boys’ heads, Connie turned to Lukas, “Hehe LuLu” he muttered jokingly.

The taller boy raised an eyebrow, “Careful now Connie, wouldn’t want Jean finding out who placed that bucket of water on top of the doorway leading to the showers.” Lukas gave him a devilish grin.

Connie, a shocked look in his face replied, “But…that was the both of us!”

Lukas, eyebrow raised, remembered the prank they had pulled on their friend fondly before replying, “Yeah…but who is he gonna believe?”

The shorter boy sighed resigned, “Fine…”

Lukas chucked, the feeling having faded away again, but as he turned around, he focused in on a conversation between who else but Jean and Eren. 

“Jean if you’re going to ride at a snail’s pace, I’m going on ahead.” Eren said.

Eren tried to ride forward, but was stopped by Marco, “We need to do this as a group…” the boy started, “Jean what do you think we should do?”

His friend answered, “Like I care.” The gray-haired teen said flatly, “It’s not like this is gonna get me into the Military Police.”

Lukas rode up beside Jean, and responded, “Marco, you’re doing fine, at the pace we’re going we should be on track. I trust you.”

Marco seemed reassured by that, “Alright, let’s just focus on the exercise then.”

“Not gonna happen.” Jean said negatively riding beside him.

“Hey” Eren responded “it’s too soon to give up.” Turning towards Jean he finished. “Stop being such a baby.”

_Here we go…_

“So, we’re not even allowed to moan now?” Jean retorted.

“Yeah…Jean does love moaning.” Lukas replied, getting a few laughs but failing to ease the tension.

“Shut up Schmitty” his friend hissed at him.

“I’d be fine moaning if it made the time go by faster.” Connie added.

“You said it…” Sasha finished, “the road ahead is a long one.”

Lukas heard Jean mutter something before the group continued on. In the silence, the boys mind drifted back to what was becoming a constant issue for him. Not wanting to be seen as a weak link by the military higher-ups, he resolved to keep it a secret for a few more weeks until the training corps was assigned to visit Trost for a training exercise. Though not being a medical professional, Lukas’s mother was the one of the most knowledgeable people he knew, so he would see if she had any advice about this issue. The thing that bugged him today though, was the intensity of it. It had never been that bad before, and the thought of it was a pit residing in his gut now.

“Tch, we even got a lizard as a running partner.” Jean commented to him, breaking Lukas out of his thought.

Lukas looked at the creature skittering along the ground, and realized his stomach was grumbling.

“You don’t see lizards too often” he heard Marco add.

_Damn, am I that hungry?_

The rations that they were given for the exercise were “suitable”, but the fact that Lukas had to actually think of the last time he had meat only made the creature more desirable.

_I am that hungry. Is this what Sasha feels all the time?_

“They’re really tasty…” Sasha said if like she read his mind.

“No kidding?” The teen found himself replying.

“Yeah” the brunette said with a smile, “We used to have them all the time back home.”

_Well then_

“They taste like chicken.”

_That’s settled_

“You know how to cook them then?” Jean added, the two friends definitely on the same page.

“Of course!” Sasha replied enthusiastically, “It’s easy”

“All right then.” Jean replied, rushing ahead of the group, and whipping out his swords

What happened next was a blur. Jean rushed the lizard hoping to skewer it on approach, but right before he was able to make the kill, Eren, who had followed him out had blocked the teens blade with his own.

“What are you doing?” Jean questioned as the lizard started to skitter away.

The black-haired boy formerly of Shiganshina was about to reply when a sound echoed a few feet away, that of blade entering flesh. The two looked up to see Lukas, atop his horse only a few feet away pulling his own blade from the body of the now deceased lizard.

Eren, looking like he was about to lash out at the two of them spat out, “This isn’t a game!”

The taller boy having dismounted to collect his trophy responded, “Who said it was?” The response threw Eren off for a moment.

Lukas continued, “Point of the exercise is to keep focus during this trip even though we’re not at war, right?”

Eren nodded still disgruntled. Lukas who handed the lizard to Sasha, who unbeknownst to everyone was looking at the boy like he was some conquering hero, continued, “Keeping focus means we keep ourselves well supplied in the event that we should run out of rations right?”

Eren now somewhat confused, scratched his head “I guess?”

“Good” Lukas smiled as he sheathed his blades and remounted. He turned to Marco, “Should we keep moving Team Leader?”

His friend, recovering from the shock of the incident, took a moment before responding, “Yeah…of course.”

As everyone resettled into trotting along, Marco turned to Lukas who now rode alongside him. “That was some pretty great stuff you said back there. I didn’t know you were so invested in this exercise Lukas.”

“I’m not, all of that I said was bullshit.” Lukas said with a smirk.

“WHAT?!?” Marco replied with shock.

The Lukas patted his friend on the back with a smile, “Marco don’t worry, I was just defusing the fight that was about to happen between Jean and Eren.”

“Oh” Marco replied still confused, “Then what about the lizard?”

The boy gave a guilty look, “I’m starving, and Sasha said it tastes like chicken…”

Lukas winced, slightly embarrassed before looking over to Armin who he had not realized was riding alongside then, “Wait…Armin you haven’t been writing this all down have you?”

The blonde gave an equally guilty look.

…

_That…was totally worth it._

Lukas slipped the final piece of his cooked lizard into his mouth. Sasha had spoken true, while not tasting exactly like chicken, the meat had been pretty close. Most of the company had enjoyed the meal, the hesitation of even Marco and Armin fading away as Sasha cooked the beast on the fire. Lukas was pretty sure Krista was somewhat upset at him, her kind heart not too keen on him killing an innocent creature, but the boy was sure that that same kind heart would forgive him at some point. Even Eren, who had just got over arguing with Jean once again, reluctantly chewed at his piece, a hint of enjoyment on his face.

“Lukas” Sasha spoke up as the boy finished his meal, “Have you seen Jean, he hasn’t got his piece yet?”

His friend had walked off after his altercation with Eren and was most likely cooling off.

“Here” the boy extended his hand, “I’ll take it and go give it to him.”

The brunette looking up from the fire, handed Lukas the meal, “Don’t go eating that LuLu.” She smiled. “I can see your stomach popping out already.”

Lukas smiled looking down at his gut, though not engorged, it was bigger than usual. Although polite and cordial to everyone else, Sasha had grown comfortable with joking with both him and Connie, and honestly could be pretty witty herself. The teen enjoyed the brunette’s company, as even if she was not in the best situation, hungry or otherwise, Sasha seemed to always make the best of it; always happy or at least positive. It was something that Lukas really appreciated from the girl from Dauper, and maybe something that he needed himself.

Lukas chuckled in response, making an exaggerated motion with his gut, “You like what you see?”

The boy didn’t wait for a response as he walked off, the campfire hiding the fact that the girl had blushed a little bit at his comment.

Lukas continued on towards the outskirt of the camp they had set up. The night was extraordinarily clear, with no clouds in the sky, and they had been graced with a full moon. That being said it only took a couple minutes for the teen to find his friend sitting leaned up against a tree, busy sketching away at a piece of scratch paper he had smuggled along on the trip.

“You know” Lukas started alerting Jean to his presence, “If you didn’t just sketch when you were pissed off, we could’ve opened a shop in the interior.” The shorter boy chuckled, “Rich people love that shit.”

It was a little-known fact that Jean Kirschtein was actually a pretty decent sketch artist. Albeit the grey-haired teen only really indulged in it while trying to cool off, Lukas always thought his friend’s skill was pretty amazing, definitely compared to the chicken scratch he could come up with. The shorter of the friends didn’t have to look to see what Jean was sketching, he knew his friend still worked on a sketch of a certain black-haired girl from Shiganshina, and he knew it was pretty damn good, even if Jean didn’t think so himself.

Jean scoffed, “Who says I’d go into business with you?”

The dark-haired boy smirked handing his friends meal to him, “Well you have the personality of a brick, and sure as well can’t yell or fight all your customers so that’s why you got me.” He joked.

The taller boy looked back at the camp, “I can’t stand him…”

Lukas didn’t have to look to know that he meant Eren, “I mean he’s passionate” the darker-haired boy sighed, “You and I saw how those refugees stumbled into Trost after Wall Maria fell. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like…”

Jean gritted his teeth, “That’s exactly my point. How can Eren preach to people like they’re cowards after they’ve been through something as horrible as that.”

“I don’t know bud.”

Jean continued, still fuming, “He shouldn’t try and drag everyone with him if he wants to join the Survey Corps an di…” the boy stopped himself there seeing his friends head hung low, eyes void of their usual light.

“Im sorry Lukas.” Jean muttered, regret in his eyes, “I didn’t mean…”

The shorter boy almost whispered, “I know.”

The taller boy quickly redirected the conversation, “That was quite the bullshit you pulled on Yeager earlier Schmitty.”

Lukas looked up, regaining his composure, “Yeah…” he chuckled, “Figured you didn’t catch that one.”

Jean smirked, “Didn’t catch it?” the boy chuckled, “I nearly died right there. ‘Keeping focus’ my ass.”

The dark-haired boy laughed at that, “I thought it was one of my better works.”

At that moment Lukas could feel the telltale signs of the ‘feeling’ coming back to him. Same as the experience he felt earlier, he put a hand to his temple of his head.

“Still getting those headaches?” Jean questioned.

Lukas gave his friend a confused look before the taller boy continued. “Give me some credit Schmitty, I’m just as observant if not more so than Potato Girl, and I’m a lot harder to bullshit.”

The shorter boy resigned replied, “Yeah, but not gonna give Shadis a reason to kick me, no point if only one of us gets into the MP’s right?”

Jean nodded, “Just get that checked out when we head back to Trost in a few weeks.”

“For sure.” Lukas smiled, “Gonna talk to my Mom about it.”

The taller boy cocked his head, “Your mom causes more headaches than she fixes.”

The shorter friend gave a smirk, “I’ll make sure to tell her that.”

A look of anxiety ran across Jean’s face, “The fuck you are.”

The friends sat in silence a few more moments, before Lukas took a glance at his friend’s sketch again.

He pointed at the piece, “You ever going to ask her?”

“I don’t know.” Jean sighed, rubbing the back of his head, “She hangs around Yeager all the time.”

Lukas shrugged, “You never know.”

Jean smirked standing up, “Could say the same about you.”

The black-haired boy gave him a puzzled look, “I don’t know what you mean?”

The two teens started back towards the camp, “Well can’t tell you.” Jean smirked, “Me and Connie have a bet.”

Lukas gave a puzzled look for a moment then shrugged it off, “You know…me and Connie also have a bet…”

…

Lukas rolled around in his sleep; the feeling hadn’t ceased even though he had fallen asleep. Now all he felt was a brain-splitting headache, red blobs dancing around in his eye site even though his eyes were closed, and a bone-chilling feeling running up and down his body. His unconscious state, finally giving up the act woke the teen up; his eyes shooting open and greeted by the muzzle of a rifle not two inches away from his face. Suddenly the feeling seemed to dim, still there but resigned to the back of his mind having done its job. A job that the teen realized, was not to annoy him or even hurt him, but to warn him.

Suddenly a scream rang out through the forest, which Lukas immediately recognized as Krista’s, waking the rest of his group up.

“Don’t move.”


	6. THE 104th TRAINING CORPS: DISTRESS PT.2

** CHAPTER 6 – THE 104th TRAINING CORPS: DISTRESS PT.2 **

“If we had worked as a team, then we could have done something!” Eren angrily posed.

“YEAGER, YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT!!!”

Jean Kirschtein felt a mix bag of emotions at that moment; pain, annoyance, definitely anger, but one he didn’t expect was surprise, and not only that but surprise that cleaned the slate of his own anger. The gray-haired teen could safely say he knew his friend Lukas Schmidt pretty well, even better than the boy himself sometimes, but there had been only a handful of times he’d seen his black-haired friend this angry. Not to say Lukas was never angry, hell the two made it a habit to piss each other off almost on a daily basis, but this, this was different.

“Wha…” the teen from Shiganshina barely sounded off, just as surprised as him.

In a moment the Lukas was in the shorter boy’s face, “They had three other guns pointed in our faces, what if your little stunt set one of them off?”

Eren glared back up at the boy, “But they didn’t” his voice still hostile.

“No.” Lukas started, “but the fact that you were willing to gamble that is disgusting.” The teen spoke with bile in his voice then pointing to Jean himself, “Hell if Jean had been an inch to the right, he’d be dead right now, but don’t try and weigh that on your conscious” he said almost sarcastically.

_He’s not wrong._

The gray-haired teen reached up touching his grazed cheek. What his friend had said rung true, but Lukas’s attitude concerned him. Jean knew that in reality, not a whole lot of thing ever really did anger his friend. Sure, the two of them fought constantly, but there was always an air of competitiveness between them; both never missed an opportunity to get one over on one another, and both never backed down from a fight. That being said, Lukas never really felt angry, in fact his face in those situations always looked like it was going to bust out a shit-eating grin. The boys face right now though, looked like he was close to killing the teen from Shiganshina.

“This exercise is over” Everyone turned to see Marco add to the conversation.

“It is?” Eren questioned, “Are we abandoning Krista?”

The two arguing parties had since backed off one another, anger still easily visible in both Eren’s and Lukas’s eyes.

“That’s not it.” Marco retorted surprised. “But with just us, we can’t do anything. That’s why, we should ask the Instructor…”

“What if we don’t make it.” Eren steamed. “I won’t accept it as it! I’m going to save Krista for sure, even if I have to go alone.”

“You’re…” Jean turned to see Lukas, a grim expression on his face, “…always ‘you’re’. Yeah…you’re going to get Krista and yourself shot!”

“And what…” Eren retorted glaring at the boy, “it’s better than waiting!”

Lukas pinched the bridge of his nose, “No you thick-headed fuck, I’m coming with you.”

“Me too.” Jean added, “I’m not going down in this undignified manner.”

The gray-haired boy expected a quip from his friend but was only greeted by a stone-faced nod from the teen.

_What is going on with you, Lukas?_

“You guys...?” the boy from Shiganshina looked surprised.

“No one gets left behind.” Lukas muttered.

The group resolved to reach high ground to get eyes on the group of bandits, and even though it was a mad dash up the hill they were able to make it to an outcrop overlooking the forest where Jean spotted smoke in the distance.

“What do we do?” he questioned looking through the spyglass, “At this rate, we’ll be too late.”

“They have rifles on them.” Marco added. “Were gonna get shot.”

Jean nodded handing the spyglass to Lukas, who still had the same grim expression, his eyes staring very intently at the camp below. “6” the boy muttered not even raising the device to his eye.

The gray-haired teen looked at his friend confused, “How can you tell?”

His friend still stone-faced gave a slight look of confusion himself, “What do you mean, I can see them?”

Jean shrugged it off as Armin added in, “I have an idea.”

The five of them moved to go inform the rest of the group but Jean grabbed his friends’ shoulder before he too slid down the embankment.

“What the fuck is going on with you?” Jean spoke.

Lukas squinted at the teen, “What do you mean?”

The taller of the two lowered his tone, “Don’t give me that bullshit Lukas, you were about to ream into Yeager earlier.”

The black-haired boy shrugged his shoulders, “Rightfully so…”

Jean rolled his eyes, “Yeah…but you never do it like that!” he exaggerated his last word.

Lukas gave him a blank stare for a moment, but after seeing that his friend wasn’t going to relent, the boy sighed, “Fine. I’ve had this bad feeling all day today like something was going to happen, but I ignored it.”

The gray-haired teen sighed; his friends’ attitude having made sense now. Lukas had the tendency to want to fix things, especially things that he assumed to be of his wrongdoing. If the teen blamed himself for something, or thought he did something wrong, he’d go to unnecessary lengths or do sometimes equally bullheaded things to fix the situation. The black-haired kids’ habit had gotten the duo into a fair share of sticky situations growing up, but it had also been that sense of wanting to right a wrong that led Lukas to running back to help Jean fight a bully the day they’d first met.

“Lukas, it’s not your fault.” Jean replied, “We all got duped by those bandits.”

His friend grumbled, “But, if I’d…”

The taller boy cut him off, “You couldn’t have known Schmitty.”

Lukas looked down in annoyance, a look of regret could be seen in the boy’s eyes. Jean didn’t have to read the teen’s mind to know he was reliving a certain event from three years earlier. The two would have sat there in silence but a call came from down the slope coming from Armin, bidding them to hurry. The duo nodded at one another before both sliding down to meet the group.

The blonde boy started, “They’re probably going to sell the stolen goods. If that’s the case, they’ll probably find a wide exit around this area.” He pointed to a fork in the road on a map.

Handing the map off, Armin continued, “We’ll ambush before they get there.”

“It’ll be hard since we have no horses.” Connie added, looking at the map.

“It’s possible, if there’s a wide exit.” Sasha mused looking at the map over the boy. “If we leave the forest.”

Armin nodded in agreeance, “After leaving the forest, the road divides into two routes. One of the roads goes to a wider exit, and once they enter there, we don’t stand a chance.”

Jean butted in, “And if it goes well?” he questioned.

Eren added, “Which carriage will Krista and the 3D gear be in? How can we tell?”

“If we hear a rattling sound, we’ll be able to tell.” Marco answered.

Lukas, arms folded questioned as well, “The rattling being the cart with the ODM I suppose?”

“Exactly!” Marco responded.

“Considering how much equipment they have, it’s a good bet they’ll have Krista in the other carriage.” Armin mused, “In that case we should only have three of us drop in, two in the ODM cart, and one in Krista’s as too not accidently fall onto her.”

The bookish teen looked to the group, “I suggest Eren, Jean, and Lukas. They have the best hand to hand scores out of the lot of us.”

The mentioned trio nodded in agreement, and Lukas replied with resolve in his voice, “I’ll take Krista’s cart.”

_Damn it Lukas._

“You sure?” Eren questioned.

“Yeah” the boy nodded, “Those training sessions with Annie at least taught me to take a beating.” Lukas half joked, face still serious. “Just make sure you two don’t leave me hanging.”

Jean could tell that his friend was still holding on to a sense of guilt for the situation but knew he didn’t have the time to argue with Lukas about it. As everybody made their way to the fork in the road, he was almost surprised as Sasha strolled up beside him.

“What is it, Potato-Girl?”

Uncharacteristically brushing off the comment the brunette replied, “Is he ok?”

Jean didn’t have to discern the girls meaning. It had always wondered the gray-haired teen how selectively oblivious his friend could be, but he knew Lukas would figure it out at some point.

“Stubborn is what he is…” he scoffed.

_Connie is horrible at making bets._

…

_What the fuck is wrong with me!?!?_

Lukas’s body was still as he balanced on a tree branch with the road below him, the teen’s mind was the complete opposite, however. He didn’t understand what was going on with his body, didn’t understand how he was able to sense the thieves before everyone else, and didn’t understand how that was even possible. What was even worse was he was wracked with guilt over it. If the teen had understood the signals his body was putting off this all wouldn’t be happening; his teammates wouldn’t have been put into danger, his best friend wouldn’t have almost been shot dead in front of him, and Krista wouldn’t be being held hostage by some fucks with god know what intentions.

_This is all my fault._

The black-haired boy’s spine shivered at the thought as he clenched his fist even harder. The continued demeaning of his psyche only stopped by the two rings of a nearby can.

_ODM’s in the second cart, means I’m going to the first._

He looked over at the tree next to him to see Eren and Jean perched on a similar branch. The duo nodded at him as the rumbling of the thieves’ convoy made its pass below, and in a synchronized motion all three of them jumped from their elevated positions. Lukas felt as his body weight easily ripped through the canvas covering the top of the first cart. The teen felt himself bump into a body before landing successfully but was thankful to see it was one of the thieves and not Krista who at a quick glance was tied standing up to a bar at the rear of the carriage.

_Two thieves in the carriage, one driving it up front._

“Wha…where’d you come from?” one of the men spoke in shock.

The boy didn’t grace the thief an answer as he laid a fist into the man’s face, downing him for a moment. Turning his attention to the other man who he’d knocked into on his decent, Lukas tackled him forward towards the drivers seat next to the third thief. Suddenly feeling the man behind him try and use a rifle to put the boy into a choke hold, Lukas instead used the thief’s momentum to flip him over, situating all of the hostile combatant in front of him and Krista behind him.

“You ok?” he muttered to the blonde who nodded in agree, and before turning back saw a glimpse of Jean fighting the driver of the second carriage.

“Watch out!” the girl screamed.

Lukas turned back to narrowly avoid getting a rifle butt to the face but instead using a trick out of Annie’s playbook used the thief’s momentum to sweep the man behind him past Krista and completely out of the cart. Looking in shock he saw as the horse of the second carriage narrowly missed the man and ran off the road Eren and Jean still inside. Before he could even think if his compatriots were ok, he felt the surefire feeling of a wooden butt of a rifle hit him square in the back of the head.

GET UP!!!

The black-haired teen came too what seemed to be a few moments later. Besides the blistering feeling in his head accompanied by a moist feeling coming from the back of his skull, Lukas saw that Krista had somewhat gotten free of her bonds and was doing her best to distract the thief, rifle still in hand. Still stumbling to regained consciousness, the boy saw as the man got the better of the blonde, ripping her from the restraints and tossing her to the side of Lukas on the floor of the carriage. The thief would have continued his rampage had it not been for the distinct noise of ODM approaching the rear of the vehicle.

The thief turned to the threat taking a few pot shots but to no avail. Lukas finally able to regain his footing took advantage of the distraction, flinging forward from the ground and tackling the man has hard as he could, knocking the both of them into the side of the carriage very roughly. Glancing towards the front of the carriage, he saw the blurred figures of Jean and Eren cut into the reins attaching the horse to the carriage. The driver in response, not having control of the vehicle, viciously pulled the brake. Lukas, looking back in terror at the blonde, knew that at this speed the crash was going to be rough so in a split-second decision dove onto the smaller girl hoping to at least shield her from the blow of the crash. The boy from Trost was not a second too soon as right after he made contact with Krista, he felt an object strike his head, the world going black once more.

…

_“Taking responsibility is having the means to look after your people, and the will to see it though.”_

_“You take care of those people you care about.”_

_“You’re the man of the house while I’m away.”_

_“YOU DON’T BELONG HERE!!!”_

Lukas shot up with a start, morning sun peeking in through the forest canopy.

“Look who decided to wake up.” Jean said sarcastically crouched in a seated position to his right.

“I’m glad he did.” Lukas looked to his left to see Krista standing to his left. “I would’ve never forgiven myself if he didn’t.” the blonde smirked.

The black-haired teen lifted his hand to meet the throbbing back of his head only to feel a wrapping of bandages around it, “What happened?”

The grey-haired teen chuckled, “The part where that thief whacked you upside the head with his rifle, or the part where flying debris cracked your hard-ass head open even more?”

Jean and Krista explained that Lukas had saved the later from the brunt of the crash when the carriage had started into a barrel roll off the road. Though it had knocked the teen unconscious Krista remarked how even in that state the boy had a death grip on her, enough so that when the thieves had recovered from the crash it took the two remaining men to pry her from his grasp. Although the men took Krista hostage once more standing off with the group as it arrived, a timely flare that Armin had fired earlier had alerted the second group of their position, Mikasa and Annie arriving just in time to subdue the bandits. Marco had gotten into contact with the Military Police who arrested the thieves, and also applied first aid to Lukas’s wound, which supposedly required them to stitch up the back of his head.

“Makes sense.” Lukas muttered a reply, turning to Krista, “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to prevent you getting taken hostage.”

An audible sigh could be heard from Jean, as Krista shook her head confused, “What are you apologizing for?” she spoke, “You saved my life, who knows what would’ve hit me if you hadn’t shielded me from that debris.”

The teen was about to reply until Jean butted in, “Lukas just take the damn compliment, your thick-headed stupidity saved Krista’s life.”

The blonde leaned over and kissed Lukas on the forehead, “I don’t know, I thought it was pretty brave.” She smiled before walking off.

The two boys looked at one another shocked for what seemed to be a long moment. “You lucky piece of shit.” Jean remarked standing up.

Lukas grunted, rubbing the back of his head again, “I don’t feel lucky.”

The taller boy offered his hand to his friend to help him up, his features softened, “But really, are you ok Lukas?”

The shorter of the two took the hand and rose to his feet, “Yeah peachy.” He smirked, “You’re not getting soft on me, right horse-face?”

“Not on your life shorty.”

The two walked over towards the various assembled groups of their comrades, when Lukas caught sight of Eren talking to Armin. Making his way over to the duo, the black-haired boy from Shiganshina looked up and greeted him, “Oi Lukas, how you feeling?”

Lukas shrugged, “Like shit, but better.” He paused, sighing, “I wanted to apologize for earlier, my head wasn’t in the right place and I shouldn’t have blown up on you like that.”

Eren looked surprised for amount then looked down and scratched his ear, “I…can’t say my head was in the right place either. All that matters was that it turned out alright huh?”

The taller boy nodded his head, “Right.” He smiled, holding out his hand “So are we good?”

Eren smirked in return clasping the outreached gesture, “We’re good.”

Not a second after the two boys made up did Lukas notice a presence behind him. He barely got the chance to turn around seeing a blur of familiar long brunette hair approaching him.

“Oh hey Sasha I…”

**_SLAP!!!_ **

Before the boy could even register the pain coming from his cheek, the girl had walked away, almost fuming. Lukas reached to touch his cheek very confused.

_What was that about?_


	7. THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: TRUST

** CHAPTER 7 - THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: TRUST **

"Sorry, Schmidt came by earlier and said he was picking up your meal." 

Sasha Braus looked at her fellow recruit assigned with serving the cadets meals with disbelief. Today was Sunday, Sundays were the brunette’s favorite day because they granted the recruits an extra half a ration added on to their normal allowance of food. The girl had almost been lulled into a state of shock, she didn't doubt her fellow recruits’ credibility, but this was an unheard of move from Lukas, no matter what she currently thought of the boy.

_And what do you think of him?_

_"Shut up!"_

The girl from Dauper felt conflicted, despite what other feelings she might have felt at the time. Lukas first and foremost had been her friend, and if she was honest a pretty good friend at that. The teen was really easy to be around, funny, caring, and remarkably never commented on her eating habits, but he was stupid. He had to go risking himself trying to fight two grown men at once, and got his head cracked open. The brunette cared about the black-haired boy but seeing him laid up unconscious after the incident with the thieves brought up an emotion she did not expect, fear. Sasha was afraid he wouldn’t wake up despite the Military Police’s examination proving the boy would be fine, and what was even worse, was that it was something she had no control over. After Lukas had eventually woke up, she had felt so relieved, but then had felt angry. Sasha was angry that Lukas had put her in that state, and she was still angry, not having talked to the boy or interacted with him since that day.

_You didn’t like how Krista kissed him either._

_“SHUT UP!”_

Sasha was upset, she was angry, and now that she had been deprived of food that was rightfully hers, she was hungry, very fucking hungry.

“LUKAS!!!!!”

…

The group of four boys were huddled outside of the boy’s barracks, sun waning in the harsh dry dirt-scape that was their training ground. The sound the group had heard was overbearing in volume, a guttural screech that was almost feral, even demonic in nature, and seemed to sound like a certain black-haired teens name.

"Schmitty this has to be the stupidest idea you've ever come up with?" Jean scoffed at his friend, his face almost worried.

"Really?" Lukas shrugged, "Would've guessed that time we threw a chicken into the school bathroom."

“Hmph,” the grey-haired teen responded, “Forgot about that one, but still this one is pretty dumb.”

“I agree with Jean.” Marco motioned to the taller boy, “This is looking pretty dangerous.”

Lukas shrugged once more, knowing fully the dangers of what he was going to attempt but resolved in the fact that he had to do them.

Connie chuckled darkly, “Jean, bet you she kills Lukas before he makes it ten feet.”

Jean smirked, “You’re on, Cueball.”

Lukas rolled his eyes at the duo and looked down at the packed meal cradled in his hands. The boy had no way of knowing whether or not this would work but he had to try something. It was pretty evident that Sasha was mad at him, for what he did not know, but the fact that she had actively avoided him for the past week had weighed on the teen. He needed to talk to her, if not to resolve things, then to find out what it was that Lukas did to upset her. After all she was his friend and at the very least, he’d want it to remain that way. That’s why in his idiotic genius the teen looked to force a confrontation, after all, all he had to do was outrun Sasha to a more secluded location where he had a waiting parcel that would hopefully stop the brunette from killing him.

The black-haired boy’s thoughts were interrupted a moment later by the deafening noise of the door to the mess hall crashing open. Lukas felt the trio of boys behind him clear off him in an instant and looked to see the figure standing in said doorway. Sasha Braus scanned the immediate area with the quickness and accuracy common to a huntress such as herself. In no time at all she made eye contact with the boy, the look of recognition and anger in her face draining all the color from the boy’s face. Lukas didn’t need any feeling in his body to tell him what to do next.

_YOU SUICIDAL MORON…. RUN!!!_

Turning on his heels, the teen bolted as fast as he thought possible, running down the line of buildings making up the male barracks area, faintly hearing a victorious Jean gloating to Connie fading away in the background. Not a second later his ears were graced by the sound of almost inhumanly fast footfalls behind. Whatever force that had been fucking with his body suddenly decided to make an appearance, a rapid thumping in the back of his head that without actually saying anything strongly advised him to duck. Lukas did so kneeling into a running slide, careful to keep the box he still had cradled in his hands intact.

_“OH FUCK!!!”_

Not a moment later, Sasha flew headfirst over the boy. The action seemed to happen in slow motion and even though she was surprised by his sudden reaction, the momentum overshooting the brunette over the teen, her eyes maintained contact with him the entire time. Lukas shuffled to his feet as Sasha landed in a roll not a few feet in front of the boy. His original path now blocked; he made a hard right gunning it through an alleyway of two of the buildings.

_“Only a little bit more.”_

The teen rounded the corner now on the rear side of the row of buildings. It was a much tighter walkway, only about as wide as two people and flanked on the opposite side by the fence encasing the entire training camp, and he only needed to make it a few more buildings down. A sense of relief washed over him for only a moment when the black-haired boy made a chilling realization; he didn’t hear a second pair of footsteps anymore. A second later his senses flared up but, on this occasion, it was too late, coming from an adjacent side alley between another two of the buildings was the brunette who with a vicious speed dove into the boy shoulder checking him. Lukas felt his feet leave the earth and made a move to cushion the box for a hard landing. As the boy did so though, he realized that in the shoulder check Sasha had also grabbed the box which had been loosened from Lukas’s grasp. With that in mind, the teen crashed into the dirt roughly but as he quickly noticed exactly where he needed to be.

_“I really need to stop putting myself in these situations.”_

Lukas looked up to see that Sasha had already ripped open the box, hungrily ingesting the preserved meal. With a blink of an eye the contents of the box were gone and the boy’s blood chilled as the brunette that was supposed to be his friend turned towards him. Her face was beset with a primal anger and if Lukas had any less of a constitution, he would have pissed himself right there.

“Why?” Sasha almost growled out fuming.

Lukas calmed himself, “Because you won’t tell me why you’re mad at me!”

The brunettes face still furious, she gave the teen an inquisitive look, but then started to turn away to walk off still angry.

The boy gave a saddened sigh, his ploy not having gone to plan, “Well if you’re just going to just leave you might as well take this.” The boy lifted up a thatch bag that had been sitting perched up against the building beside him.

The black-haired teen heard an audible sniff from the girl. Sasha quickly turned around grabbing the bag out of the boys outstretched hand. Lukas shifted himself to sit leaning against the building the bag had leaned on, head down low in defeat. 

…

At first, she couldn’t believe what she was smelling but when she opened up the bag, she saw it. A perfectly intact, still warm portion of meat sat cozily at the bottom of the bag. She was still upset, but most of her anger had been washed away by this morsel which Sasha delicately lifted from the bag dropping the latter by the wayside. The brunette turned away from Lukas and took two hearty bites out of the morsel, it was delicious if not a bit colder than ideal but then again, she wasn’t a picky eater. Sasha then paused, the girl from Dauper wouldn’t admit it but she was on the verge of tears, but she couldn’t tell if it was happiness from the apparent gift she was just given or maybe something else.

“How did you get this?” she muttered calming herself.

It took a moment for the boy to respond, “Eren had cleaning duties for the officers mess this week, he owed me a favor.”

Sasha looked down at the meat taking another bite, not waiting to finish chewing she responded, “So you stole it?”

“Yes?”

The brunette relented while also taking another bite of the meat, “You’re stupid.”

“What?” Lukas replied, as Sasha could feel very confused eyes staring at her back.

“I’m mad at you because you’re stupid…and selfish.”

The boy squinted at her still confused, “Wait…what do you mean?”

The girl from Dauper finished the last piece of the meat, her stomach content, but still annoyed she turned to face the teen, “People care about you Lukas, and then you try and fight two grown men and get your head almost caved in!” She exclaimed.

The black-haired boy sat in silence for a moment head down before muttering, “And are you one of those ‘people’?”

The brunette looked down at the ground almost blushing but stopping herself. Grinding the toe of her boot into the dirt she spoke quietly, “Yes…”

"Oh" Lukas replied looking down awkwardly, " I… didn't realize you cared that much…"

Sasha was finding it harder and harder to be annoyed at the teen.

The brunette gave a weak smile, "Of course I do." She sighed, “You’re my friend.”

“I’m sorry.” The boy replied quietly, “I wasn’t trying to hurt you, I just…someone had to be the one to jump in alone, and I guess I felt responsible.”

The girl looked at him, “I understand…it’s just that…” she was struggling with her words, “…I’ve always been able to trust in just myself, depend on just myself, that was just how I was raised.”

Lukas looked at her intently, waiting for the brunette to continue, but when she got stuck for words he responded, “…And you started to trust me?”

She looked at him in confirmation, “Yes!” the girl exclaimed, “and how couldn’t I. From the moment you met me you never treated me like I was different than anyone else. You’ve been kind to me and even went out of your way to put your trust in me to make me feel comfortable after I’d thought I’d embarrassed myself.”

“I never thought of it that way.” Lukas replied.

“I know.” Sasha plopped herself down next to the teen, “You’ve always been genuine about it, that’s why I knew I could trust you, to…depend on you.” The girl frowned, “When you jumped in there, I trusted you’d be fine, and when you didn’t…it hurt.”

“So did that slap.” Lukas retorted trying to cheer the girl up.

Sasha chuckled for a moment, “Jerk.” She playfully punched him in the arm.

He smiled genuinely, “But really…” the boy looked up at her and spoke, “as your friend who also trusts you in case you didn’t know that already, I am sorry.”

Sasha had to catch herself from blushing again. She berated herself internally, all of her hunter instincts and this boy kept catching her off guard.

_“Stupid smile…it is nice though…”_

The girl steadied herself smiling, “Well…I guess I could forgive you.”

Sensing the tone shift, Lukas chuckled, “It was the meat, wasn’t it?”

The brunette pretended to look shocked, “How dare you! It was out of the kindness of my heart!”

The teen snorted, poking at the girl’s belly, “More like the kindness of your stomach.”

As the boy’s finger touched her mid-section, Sasha’s body squirmed back instinctively, an uncontrollable giggle came from her mouth, and like that she had finally failed to keep a blush red from taking over her face.

Lukas pulled back but gave the girl a shit eating grin, “Looks like somebodies a bit sensitive there.”

“I will kill you.” The brunette replied composing herself.

The boy rolled his eyes looking up at the setting sun, “I doubt that. If you didn’t kill after I stole your dinner, you’re not gonna kill me for this.”

The girl from Dauper didn’t know if it was instinct or her doziness finally catching up to her, but she laid her head on his shoulder. Sasha half expected Lukas pull away or made some snide comment, but he just sat still letting her head rest there and watching the setting sun.

“At least you’re a good pillow.” The girl said drowsily.

Lukas gave half a laugh, “Is that so?”

She managed a nod, before hearing the faint noise of what she thought was his heartbeat. The brunette found the rhythmic beat calming, and soon enough it lulled the girl to sleep.

_“This is nice”_

_…_

Lukas sat as the sun finally dropped below the horizon. It didn’t bother him that Sasha had started using his shoulder as a pillow and by the sound of her soft repetitive breathing and a hint of low snoring he assumed the brunette had fallen asleep.

The boy had a lot on his mind, the 104th would be making the trek to Trost in a week’s time for a training exercise and while he relished the chance to visit his mother, after all it had been two years, Lukas didn’t look forward to the ‘mental baggage’ that was bound to pop up that he worked so hard to bury the last couple years. Besides that, was the literal fact that his body was acting up in ways he couldn’t understand, and he was pretty damn sure it wasn’t puberty.

_“Two problems, I got two problems.”_

Distracting him from his inner monologue was a soft mumble from Sasha as the girl laid asleep leaned up against him. Lukas turned his head slightly to see the brunette fast asleep, her lips moving ever so slightly as if she were whispering. The boy smiled and carefully took his hand and sweeping away the bangs covering her eyes. He found that having Sasha there was somewhat calming.

_You know she’s pretty cute._

_“Wait…what?”_

The teen went wide eyed and a shade of red graced his cheeks.

_And is super nice._

_“Wha…?”_

_And sweet._

_“Ahhh…”_

_You like the way she smells too._

_“Please…”_

_Her hair, and the color of her eyes too._

_“…stop”_

_And how it’s so easy to talk to her._

_“Oh no…”_

Lukas was beet red and his heart raced as he rested his forehead in his free hand. He wanted to lie to himself, but the dark-haired teen knew what he felt was true. Lukas Schmidt had feelings for the food-loving brunette girl from Dauper Village who was currently fast asleep on his shoulder.

_“Three problems, I have three problems.”_


	8. THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: OBSERVATIONS

** CHAPTER 8 – THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: OBSERVATIONS **

The first thing that caught his eye was just how overbearing Wall Rose was. Marco Bodt had always been able to see the marvel of human engineering from his village of Jinae, the boy’s home only being a half a day’s walk north from Trost itself, but the sense of scope given off it from being next to the walls base was something else entirely. Even with the main roadway of Trost being cleared for the recruits as they passed through the gate, Marco could see the hustle and bustle of the city, horse-drawn carts moving cargo, locals peddling their wares at stalls hugging the road, and folks generally being upbeat and happy.

“This is awesome!” Connie exclaimed from in front of the boy, “This is the first time I’ve been in one of the walled cities.”

“There’ll be lots of tasty food to eat!” Sasha added.

“Yep. Home sweet home!” The two spun around to look at Lukas, who patted Jean on the shoulder beside him, “We’ll give you the grand tour once the exercise is over.”

“Really!” Sasha and Connie responded in unison excitedly.

“You know.” Jean scoffed, interrupting the conversation “If you join the Garrison, you can stay here as long as you like.”

Marco saw the black-haired boy roll his eyes, “Jean don’t be a dick.”

“No.” the gray-haired teen clapped his friend on the back and laughing in response, “We can come visit them when we’re in the Military Police!”

Sasha and Connie squinted in annoyance, and Lukas sighed in response pointing at his friend, “Don’t mind horse-face here.” the boy looked at the two in front of him, laying a hand on each of their shoulders “Sasha, given your instincts you’re a shoe in for top 10, and Connie, well…I hate to say Jean’s right.”

“Hey!” the bald teen responded in shock.

Lukas smirked rubbing his hand on Connie’s bald head like a crystal ball getting a chuckle from Jean, “I’m kidding Cueball, I’m kidding.”

Marco smiled at the exchange, the boy had expected to make some acquaintances during his time in military training, but he found himself quite pleased at the small group of friends he’d been absorbed into. They all had their quirks, and Marco who considered himself at least decent at reading people, could figure he understood the lot for the most part. There was Connie, who was playfully swinging at Lukas while the latter rubbed his head like a fortune teller; he wasn’t the brightest candle but was friendly and good hearted. The bald boy was also determined to make the Military Police to protect and provide for his family which like Marco’s own reasons was noble in nature. There was also the tendency for the shorter teen to cause mischief and make bets, the latter of which seemed prevalent as to Marco’s knowledge the bald teen held a bet with Lukas on whether or not Jean would make a move on Mikasa, and at the same time held a bet with Jean on whether or not Lukas and Sasha would get together.

The freckled teen looked at the brunette girl currently trying to hide a slight blush on her cheeks. Marco didn’t have to look far to see the reason, in Lukas’s commotion messing around with Connie with his right hand, his left hand had innocently fallen from Sasha’s shoulder to the small of her back. Marco’s face remained unchanged, but he found the action amusing. With most people, the brunette was polite, more polite than even Marco was usually, minus the fact that her stomach was a bottomless hole, but with people she knew or was comfortable with, Sasha was caring, playful, just as mischievous as Connie, and when provoked, very competitive.

“Oi Schmitty.” Jean said still laughing, “Can you see the future yet?”

Marco looked at the gray-haired teen, on the outside Jean was many things, stubborn, cocky, hot-headed to name a few, but the freckled boy knew Jean a lot different if you looked deeper. In reality Jean was a loyal friend to those he trusted, had a good sense of right and wrong not hesitating to open his mouth if he didn’t like what he saw, and most surprisingly of all, levelheaded and able to take charge in pivotal moments. Of course, to Marco’s knowledge, the only two people able to see that were himself and Lukas.

Lukas laughed taking his hand off Connie’s head, turning the boy realized where his other hand had been and uttered a quick and embarrassed apology to Sasha before turning away. Marco gave a small smirk as he saw the boy try to hide an anxious look and slight blush on his face. The black-haired boy from Trost had always struck Marco as odd. Not in a bad way mind you, Lukas was always nice to him personally, and cordial to most people, if not a bit snarky. The teen liked to poke fun at people he was friendly with and seemed to always be receptive of new people he met despite their background. All that given though, Marco seemed to notice that the boy was aloof a lot of the time, his only real reason being there was seemingly to follow Jean into the Military Police. Lukas didn’t seem to relish the fact that he had the possibility of making to the Military Police, honestly the boy seemed resigned to it, more indifferent to it than anything.

“Hey” Armin said from beside Marco, “Where exactly are your guys’ houses?” the blonde posed to Jean and Lukas.

“Does it matter?” Jean looked back at the shorter boy.

“Aren’t you going to pop home?” Marco himself added.

“Yeah, your mom will be happy to see you.” Armin added innocently.

Marco saw the look of annoyance on Jean’s face while beside him Lukas sported a smirk before speaking, “Yeah buddy, wouldn’t want my mom figuring out you didn’t visit home while you were here.”

Upon hearing that, Jean deadpanned looking down, “Tch, Lukas your mom’s a lunatic.”

Lukas raised his eyebrow, “I wouldn’t say that.”

The gray-haired teen looked at his friend, “She literally threw a frying pan at someone.”

“The guy was drunk!”

“At his head Lukas. She threw a frying pan at his head!”

Lukas rolled his eyes, “The guy was being an idiot too!”

“Uh” Armin muttered garnering the two’s attention.

“My mom owns a pub, and she works it as a bartender.” Lukas replied as Armin nodded in understanding.

Jean squinted his eyes at the boy and Lukas sighed, “…and she bounces it too.”

“So, what you’re saying…” Sasha spoke up from the head of the group, “is that you have a ton of delicious food at your house?”

Lukas rolled his eyes once more, “Yes Sasha…” he grinned sarcastically, “…would you like to come see it?”

The brunette smiled, “Don’t mind if I do.”

…

“Well, that escalated quickly.” Lukas remarked beside him.

Marco was inclined to agree with his friend. The exercise had gone off without a hitch, at least for their group, but supposedly Jean’s group which consisted of himself, Armin, and Annie, had gotten into a mix up with Sasha’s group consisting of the brunette, Connie, and Reiner. Words were said, tempers flared, and suddenly the Commander of the Southern Region of Wall Rose, Dot Pixis, appeared out of nowhere. The freckled boy didn’t see the logic of the Commander to have the two teams settle their argument thru the means of a cooking competition, but then again that was way above his paygrade. As the dust settled and the teams hauled off, all that was left was Lukas, Marco, and some other recruits.

“Yeah…” Marco replied, “That was…something.”

The two stood in silence for a moment before Lukas continued, “So Shadis gave us the rest of the day off, you going to try and head back to Jinae, see your family?”

The freckled teen frowned, “Unfortunately no, with the second half of the exercise tomorrow, I wouldn’t make it out there in time to make it worth it.”

“Ah, I’m sorry Marco” Lukas replied sullenly, “I’m headed home to visit my mom right now, you’re more than welcome to tag along.”

Marco shifted rubbing the back of his neck, “I wouldn’t want to be a burden.”

His fellow teen chuckled, “I insist, I was planning on inviting everyone anyway. Get something in your stomach not made by the military.”

The taller boy relented, “Alright, lead the way.”

The two teens made their way through the maze of streets that made up the center of Trost. Marco noted how the shorter boy weaved in and out of the multitude of passing crowds excusing the two as they passed, no matter how crowded it got though, Lukas always seemed to know which direction he was going in, truly a sign of being a native of the district. As the two crossed the main roadway into Trost, they entered a less busy neighborhood of the city, calm enough where the two could walk side by side once more.

“Is it always this busy?” Marco half joked.

Lukas shrugged, a small smile on his face, “More or less. Don’t tell me you’re getting winded already?” he joked.

“No” the taller boy sighed, “But I can see how you and Jean got so agile living here.”

The shorter of the two responded, “I suppose.”

The freckled boy looked up, “No doubt you two will make it into the Military Police.”

The shorter boy ran his fingers through his short mop of black hair, “Now don’t be going and selling yourself short. I’d bet if me and Jean are making the top ten then you’ll be up there with us.”

Marco was caught somewhat off guard by this, “You really think so?”

Lukas looked at the taller boy almost shocked as the two rounded a building onto a side street, “For sure. You’re a good leader, class-wise you’re only second to Armin, and you have decent ODM scores. I’d be lucky to serve with you.”

The taller dark-haired boy looked down at him confused, “Why do you say that?”

“You really need to have more confidence in yourself Marco.” Lukas started chuckling very briefly, “But yeah, everything aside, at the end of the day you want to be the best you can be to serve the king and the people. I think that’s admirable.”

Marco smiled at his friend, “Well I know Jean wanted to join the MP’s for a safer life in the interior, but I can’t imagine you joined just to follow him?”

Lukas sighed rubbing the back of his neck, but before he could answer another voice radiated out from a little ways in front of them.

“Is that you Luka?!?!” a middle-aged woman sporting light brown hair in a ponytail rushed up to the pair, “Oh…look how you’ve grown.”

Marco assumed that the woman was Lukas’s own mother for a moment as the boy embraced the older woman, “Mama Kirschtein its great to see you!”

The two released one another and before the older woman who had been identified as Jean’s mother had a chance to acknowledge Marco himself, Lukas stepped in, “This is Marco Bodt, he’s a friend of both me and Jean.”

“Oh” the woman exclaimed, shaking Marco’s hand warmly, “It’s nice to see the two of you are making friends. Have you seen my Jeanbo today Luka, he hasn’t come home yet?”

“Yeah” Lukas smiled anxiously, “Jean got assigned with some important work after the exercise this morning.”

The woman looked downtrodden for a moment but then replied proudly, “Always a hard worker that boy.”

Marco looked to see a pained expression on the boys faced, shamed for have lying to his friends’ mother, “But he should be finished with his work by now. More than likely he’ll be at the Garrison post in the middle of town.”

Mrs. Kirschtein looked at the boy hopefully once more, “That’s good, I’ll have to drop by and visit him.” the woman then looked down at the shorter boy’s stomach, “Oh Luka, what have the been feeding you, sawdust? You’re so thin.”

Lukas smiled almost embarrassed, “Mama K, I assure you I’m fine.”

The older woman rustled the boy’s hair, “Nonsense.” She opened the bag she had been carrying, “Don’t think just because I made my Jeanbo something that I forgot to make something for you too Luka.”

The freckled boy looked to see the older woman pull out a small box from her bag, contents still radiating heat. He looked to Lukas who at sight of the box Marco swore he saw the boy’s eyes water just a touch.

“Is that…” Lukas mumbled, almost drooling, “…an omelet?”

Jean’s mother smiled warmly, “Of course my boy. You and your mother are like family.”

Marco observed as his friend took the box as gently as a newborn baby, the boy smiled, “Thank you so much, if I run into Jean before you, I’ll tell him to come visit you.”

The older woman put her hand on his shoulder warmly, “You do that, now you and your friend best be on your way now, your mother closed up shop early to spend time with you, and you know you don’t want to keep her waiting.”

“Don’t I ever.” Lukas smirked as he and Marco bid goodbye to Mrs. Kirschtein and made their way further down the street.

After a few moments in silence Marco spoke upon again, “All that emotion for an omelet?” he joked.

“Absolutely.” Lukas replied without missing a beat, “Despite the fact that that woman is a godsend, her omelets are enough to turn the average person into Sasha.”

“So, what happens if you give that to Sasha?”

“I pray to the founder I never see that day.” Lukas laughed, “But really she’d have to kill me to take this away!”

The freckled boy didn’t know what came over him in that moment, but he felt the need to poke fun at his shorter friend, “I don’t know.” He said with a smirk, “You’ve surrendered your food for less.”

The teen squinted at him, “What are you implying?”

“Nothing!” Marco faked innocence, “Just haven’t seen you that embarrassed touching someone on the back like that.”

“Are you…?” The black-haired boy looked back at him with a confused and shocked looked on his face, “It was a mistake! I’m sure it was making her uncomfortable.”

“Sure.” The freckled teen smiled, “She didn’t seem too uncomfortable when you carried her back to the female barracks after she fell asleep on your shoulder.”

“How did you know about that?”

“So, it is true…?”

“Shit…it wasn’t what it looked like!” Lukas shook his head resigned.

Marco laughed innocently, “Its alright Lukas, I’m just messing around with you.”

The teen still held a confused and shocked look on his face, “WHAT!?!?!”

The taller teen shrugged, “You guys said I should be more confident, but really if you want to talk about it, I’m not the most experienced in that area, but I’m all ears.”

Lukas looked at him in stunned silence for a moment, “Fuck man…”

Marco looked concerned at his friend, “Ah man Lukas, I’m sorry.”

“No man…you played me” Lukas’s shocked face turned into a small chuckle, “…and you did it so well! I’m so proud of you. Mine and Jean’s work has not gone to waste.” He laughed.

Marco realized what was going on and laughed with his friend before Lukas got quiet once more, “But yeah you’re right, I do like her, but its not something I want to talk about.”

“Oh, ok” Marco replied.

“Not right now at least.”

…

After a few more minutes of walking the duo rounded onto a slightly wider street, as they strolled further down, they heard a commotion from the front of them. Marco heard a slight chuckle from Lukas before looking to see a peculiar sight. Two adults, a female looking around in her late-30’s with shoulder length messy black hair held up into a messy bun, was trying to reason with a larger man both height and width-wise, the latter seemingly drunk.

“I said it was closing time you tub of lard!” the woman berated him trying to guide the man out into the street.

The man looked off balance, as he slurred his words, “I’LL TELL YOU WHEN I’VE HAD ENOUGH!”

“Sure buddy.” The woman turned scoffing about to head back into the building.

As the woman turned, Marco saw the much larger man raise his fist supposedly to strike the former. Before the freckled boy could even mutter a warning, the fist was barreling its way down towards its target. He would’ve winced but not a second later the woman anticipated the strike stepping to the side, like a flash the women’s right heel seemed to disappear from the ground and reappear colliding with the man’s head. Before Marco had anytime to process what happened, the drunk man was laid out on the ground, unconscious. The exchange had unsettled him, but as he looked to Lukas, his friend seemed completely unfazed.

“Hey Mom!” the boy exclaimed happily.

The woman who to this point had a cold, unfazed expression on her face seemed to warm at the sound of his friend’s voice.

“Ah…I was wondering when you’d show up buster.” She gave her larger son a huge hug lifting him a tiny bit above the ground.

The woman who was now confirmed to be Lukas’s own mom turned to the freckled boy, “Rhia Schmidt, this hardheads mother.” She laughed holding out her hand.

“Marco Bodt.” He exchanged the gesture.

Rhia turned to her son, “Oi, where’s Jeanie-Weanie? Don’t tell me he was scared enough not to visit?”

The two boys laughed, Lukas responding, “Well yes, but Jean did have some business, but he should be by later.”

“Good.” She smirked, “He better be.”

Marco looked down at the unconscious bar patron still laying face down in the street, “Should we…?”

“Nah.” The woman shrugged, “I didn’t kill him, so he should wake up eventually, or the MP’s will find him and wake him up, whatever comes first.”

The freckled teen smiled nervously, “Oh…ok.”

The black-haired woman turned to her son, eyeing the box in his hands, “I see Jean’s Mom got to you already.”

“That she did, off to find him as we speak.”

With a raised eyebrow the woman responded, “Better not try and avoid her again, that boy’s more stubborn than you are Lukas.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment Ma, she told me you closed down for the day.” The smaller boy shrugged.

“Of course!” she exclaimed with pride, “Had to watch my boy to see how he did.”

Marco looked confused, “I thought the Garrison evacuated all the civilians for the exercise?”

Rhia smiled at the freckled boy, “The Garrison can’t evacuate you if the Garrison can’t find you.”

The older woman ushered the two boys into the building, “Come on now you two, let’s get something edible into those stomachs.”

…

Marco was thoroughly stuffed, as he and Lukas sat along the bar at the latter’s mother’s establishment. The food wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, mostly loaves of bread and soup, simple foods befitting the establishments actual purpose of serving alcohol, but the quality was head and shoulders a step above that which the military had been feeding them the last couple years. Rhia Schmidt stood behind the counter content as any mother would seeing her son after a long absence.

“So…” the woman started, a smile on her face, “You boys meet anyone?”

Marco was confused by the question until Lukas answered his mother in annoyance, “Mom…no.”

The freckled boy blushed a bit as the woman feigned innocence, “What?!?” she raised her hands questioningly, “Two young fetching boys such as yourselves, I mean I saw some cute ones flying around today during the exercise.”

Lukas buried his head into the counter, “Please stop.”

“There was those two blonde’s in Jeanie’s group?” Rhia pondered.

The shorter boy sighed, “Annie’s not the personable type, and Armin’s a boy!”

“Oh” Marco saw the woman shudder, “My mistake, my eyes must be failing me in my old age.”

“Ugh…Mom.”

“I saw this interesting black-haired girl with a red scarf too.”

“Nope.” Lukas deadpanned, still face down in the counter, “But Jean does like Mikasa.”

Rhia rubbed her chin, “Interesting.” She positioned her head on the counter close to her son, “I did see this brunette too, seemed to get into it with Jeanie’s group too, she looked kinda cute.”

Lukas groaned, but Rhia saw a little extra shudder at her last suggestion, the woman’s poking and prodding having produced results, she backed off a tinge.

The woman smirked pulling at her sons’ ear, “Don’t give me that Lukas, I wasn’t too older than you when your Dad started showing interest in me.”

Marco’s ears perked up at the sound of Lukas’s father. The boy hadn’t been too keen on talking about his family in the first place which was odd since he was usually pretty talkative, but even in the times he mentioned his mother he never once mentioned his dad.

“By the way, when are you going to go visit him?”

“Tomorrow.” Lukas mumbled quickly, “Before we leave Trost.”

Rhia posed no argument and the three maintained small talk for awhile before Lukas posed a question to his mother.

“Hey Mom, I need to talk to you…privately.”

Marco didn’t miss the serious tone on his friend’s face and neither did Rhia as the woman excused herself and her son as the two walked behind the bar into a back room. Marco didn’t think the exchange was out of the ordinary, some discussions we’re meant to be private after all. Still some broken bit of the conversation made it to the main room, only because they were the only people in the establishment.

“…..not headaches…”

“…..sure?”

“….don’t…….what……is”

“Listen…..it….”

The muffled voices were soon drowned out by the crashing of the front door of the establishment behind him. Marco looked to see a triumphant Jean enter followed by many of their other comrades. The gray-haired teen hadn’t taken five steps into the establishment before an old, hardened roll of bread flew from behind Marco’s sight and beamed Jean right in the head. The teen held his head in pain, as Marco heard the voice of Rhia Schmidt sound from behind him.

“JEANIE WHY HAVE I HEARD YOU HAVEN’T VISITED YOUR MOTHER YET!?!”

“Ah…why did you do that you hag!” the boy replied.

Marco looked to see the woman grab a frying pan from underneath the counter of the bar, “You best phrase your words very carefully Jeanie-Weanie.”

The freckled boy saw his friend show a rare moment of fear wash over his face, “I’m…sorry Ma’am. I’m going to visit her here soon.”

The woman put the cooking dish back into its place, “Good.”

A chuckle came from behind Jean, its source being Eren, “Lukas, I like your mother already.”

Lukas walked out from behind the bar, “I know right?” he chuckled.

The group filed in and Marco saw Lukas approach Jean, “So you won?”

The gray-haired teen rubbed his head, “Yeah.”

Lukas shrugged, “Guess you didn’t need my cooking expertise after all?”

Jean scoffed, “Cooking expertise? Schmitty you can’t cook to save your life.”

The shorter friend looked genuinely shocked, “That’s preposterous!”

“Really?” Jean squinted smirking, “How’s your eyebrow doing growing back?”

“That was a freak accident!” Lukas responded insulted.

“No, it wasn’t sweetie.” Lukas looked behind him to see his mother, “You wonder why I never want you to cook for Mother’s Day.”

It took awhile for the shock of this realization to leave Lukas’s face, recovering the boy turned back to his friend smirking, “You used the omelet, didn’t you?”

“Yep.” Jean snidely remarked.

In a flash Marco saw Sasha appear from the crowd, grabbing Lukas from the collar and pushing him down to the table angrily.

“YOU KNEW WHAT JEAN WAS GOING TO COOK?!?!”

“I had an idea?” the boy answered confusedly.

“This is a betrayal of our friendship…how could you!!!” even Marco could tell the brunette was in some sort of crazed rambling, but the freckled boy also noticed that the teen laid out on the table didn’t seem to be defensive or even confused anymore, he was blushing. Marco looked around to see that no one else seemed to notice except Rhia who had a small knowing smile on her face.

A few moment later, he saw the brunette realize the position the two were in, her face blushing quickly too as she hurriedly released Lukas from her grip. The girl recovered quickly turning around.

“I guess…I could forgive you for this betrayal. You weren’t sure after all.”

Marco saw Lukas recover quickly as well straightening out his clothes, “Uh yeah…ok then.”

…

Marco hurried through the streets the following day looking for the location the 104th Training Corps was supposed to be mustering at before returning to the training camp. As he winded through the maze that was Trost the freckled teen was surprised to come across a small cemetery. More surprisedly he recognized a familiar figure; one he had seen not the day before crouching in front of one of the graves. The taller boy stood there for a moment conflicted on what he should do, but then resolved himself to go speak to his grieving comrade and friend. Before the boy could take a step though he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t” Jean spoke to him quietly, “He’s alright…just needs a moment.”

Marco complied with his friend and soon enough Lukas exited the cemetery and gave the two a reassuring nod.

“Till the end?” Jean muttered.

“Till the end.” Lukas replied.

…

Rhia Schmidt stood wiping down her bar top preparing her establishment for the day’s events. The older woman liked the quiet, it was calming before the hecticness of the day, but her usual roll was slowed by the nagging feeling in the back of her head. The mother hated lying, and even more, she hated lying to her son. Lukas was a good boy, personality like his father, looks like him as well minus the hair, but despite that, he didn’t deserve what was happening to him, what she no doubt case. Rhia couldn’t get the vision of the blotch of skin on her sons’ collarbone, not to dissimilar to a bruise out of her head.

The woman was knocked out of her dread by a loud continuous scream somewhat in the distance but increasing in volume as it approached. Rhia didn’t have to ascertain the source of the noise, she knew what it was, rather who it was, and shook her head in annoyance waiting for the inevitable.

Sure enough, a few moments later, the door blew open, the force almost knocking the wooden slab off its hinges. Rhia looked mildly at the figure now standing in the doorway.

“IS HE HERE?” the figure panted, “DID I MISS HIM?”

“Good Afternoon to you too nutcase” Rhia deadpanned, “Lukas left with his Corps a few hours ago.”

“AWWW” the person whined, “DAMN IT!”

The older woman chuckled a bit, “Any more crazed, and you might have been mistaken for his family.”

The figure shrugged smiling, “I thought that’s why you made me his godmother.”

“You know…” Rhia replied sarcastically, “really starting to question that decision.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” The figure snorted, “How’d he do?”

Rhia Schmidt gave a genuine smile, “He’s a natural.” She felt a tear welt up in her eye, “There was a moment I could’ve sworn he was Danny.”

The figure looked down saddened, “I miss him.”

Rhia sighed, wiping the tear from her eye, “I do too.”


	9. THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: RELIEF

** CHAPTER 9 – THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: RELIEF **

_“Instead of fighting it, maybe try and listen to it.”_

Lukas Schmidt wouldn’t admit it, but at first, he thought his mother’s advice was downright insane. After all, who in all the walls would want to listen to their head as it’s pounding a mile a minute. To the black-haired boys surprise the woman didn’t seem shocked or even all that confused when he confided to her about his odd issue; Lukas’s mother attributing it to a finer grasp of his senses, probably something the boy inherited from his father. Lukas didn’t know if he fully believed that answer, if he was honest, he believed what was happening to him wasn’t at all natural, but if there was one thing Rhia Schmidt was known for, it was being blunt, and all that aside she would never lie to him anyway.

To the woman’s credit though, her solution did seem to be working, at least partially. After some trial and error, the boy seemed to be piecing together some commonalities, though it wasn’t an exact science. Simply, the worse his body felt, the worse the warning to come. Though nothing had been as bad as his reaction during the bandit incident some months back, a quick sharp headache usually warned him he was about to get hit or hurt generally. This particular warning helped him during sparring sessions with Annie, though generally not that much. Then there were the dull throbbing headaches, these usually were a toss-up on what they could be, but it usually associated itself with a negative emotion Lukas was about to feel. This could be anxiety from Shadis chewing someone out, annoyance of breaking up a fight between Jean and Eren, or even disappointment as Connie failed to set off one of their pranks on Jean. Finally, there was the tapping, which usually paired itself with his odd vision changes. The duo weren’t even annoying in the slightest, and at this point these only manifested when he wanted them too, though prolonged use seemed to cause some physical reaction as he seemed to get nose bleeds often after these episodes. To Lukas’s understanding they seemed to work like a compass, the tapping seemingly occurring in the direction of other people, and the blurred colors he saw usually confirming the former, as people showed up in a whole array of colors the boy didn’t fully yet understand.

The latter of these scenarios was in fact, helping the teen out currently. Speeding through the forest, Lukas shifted between the various triggers of his ODM gear with ease as he scanned the area for the wooden titan cutouts that served as their training dummies for this exercise. A tap in his head lead his gaze towards his left, a ways down the forest floor, a 15-meter cutout stood, directed by two of the instructor’s aids, who the boys tapping was really leading him towards. Lukas sped towards the target wary that the exercise was being graded based on points scored from successful strikes on the cutouts. Since there was a limited amount of cutouts and the pads on each cutout that represented a titan’s nape was only wide enough for 3 successful cuts, there wasn’t time to waste.

Anchoring to a tree trunk somewhat to the right of the ‘titan’, Lukas reeled upwards aiming to swing around the far side of the tree. After reaching the peak of his movement, the teen detached his cables quickly firing them once more downward this time into another tree on the opposite end of the cutout. Now with gravity and momentum in his favor the black-haired boy applied a touch of gas sending him speeding past the titan’s nape at a good strike angle. The rest was without thought as Lukas only needed to apply a minimal amount of force with his current speed to cut through his target. He saw the pad split, a fair-sized cut appearing, the audible rip along with it, and as he moved on, he saw the cold emotionless gaze of Commandant Shadis no doubt evaluating him.

Though the glare made the boy tense, he was in no way nervous about the exercise. Both Jean and Lukas were top of the class in ODM, the former being faster in general and better at the kill itself while the latter had better spatial awareness and flexibility with the equipment. While he could bank some of his ability on this newfound sense, Lukas couldn’t discount that most of it was learnt, both from experience and observation, the latter of which more than he wanted to admit. While many recruits regarded ODM with indifference, a rugged determination, or even disgust or fear, the black-haired teen loved it. It was freedom to him, just him, his thoughts, and the free air, with the occasional passerby. Lukas felt a happiness wash over him in those moments, as even though he was just a teen it reminded him of simpler times, of happier times, of times with his dad. Not that it mattered though, the Military Police had little use for ODM, had little use for freedom.

_“No, I can’t be selfish.”_

Lukas pushed those old thoughts to the back of his head; he wouldn’t burden his best friend. The teen couldn’t ask Jean, the boy he considered a brother, to follow him to a certain death, not after what he saw, what they saw. Even if he didn’t ask, even if Lukas went solo, even as much as Jean detested the very idea of it, his best friend would follow him, because Lukas was his best friend, Lukas was his brother, and above all things when they said till the end, they meant till the end.

“Ah shorty!” Lukas was broken out of his thoughts by his aforementioned best friend, “Fancy seeing you here.”

The black-haired boy who in reality was only barely shorter than Jean yelled back at his friend, the two zipping past trees, “Can’t find titans on your own horse face?”

Jean weaved in and out of two trees and smirked, “Nope, just wanted to see your face when I out score you.”

Lukas vaulted over a large branch in between swings, “Must’ve hit your head there Jeanie, cause you seem to have lost all your common sense. I’ll take you to doc after I win.”

“In your dreams.”

The two boys sped along and after a few moments spotted the same target within seconds of each other, this time without the use of the sense, as Lukas’s concentration was now focused on friendly competition with his friend. The boy shot his hooks at two separate trees, forcing a quick deceleration and quickly contorted himself towards the target, seeing a glimpse of Jean doing a similar maneuver. Both then gassed it towards the cutout, playing a dangerous game of chicken.

“Way to scout out this once for me guys!” Lukas looked up to see Connie dropping from the canopy above the titan, “Don’t mind if I take it right?” he said sarcastically.

The black-haired teen rolled his eyes, now not sure who would actually reach the nape first. Flying closer he was surprised once more as Sasha quickly glided in past all of them and surprised the trio slicing the cutouts nape first. As Lukas past the taken target he swore he could see the brunette sticking her tongue out at him in victory, then screaming in joy, and once again he couldn’t differentiate whether it was adrenaline or something else that ran though his mind again.

_Well, there’s a whole other bag of worms._

In reality Lukas knew what he had to do. It was simple, tell Sasha how he felt, but at the same time it was hard. Everything seemed to be a contradiction to him; somedays he’d be able to talk to her like he’d done the past 3 years and somedays he’d blabber like an idiot, somedays they’d prank Connie and somedays Lukas would blush at the sight of her, somedays she was a great friend and somedays she was potentially something more. The teen wasn’t embarrassed that he liked the brunette, Sasha was kind, funny, and almost always had a smile on her face. The girl from Dauper was pleasant to be around, Lukas didn’t mind that she had the appetite of ten people, besides everyone had a quirk, he snored with the volume of a marching band, Jean talked in his sleep, and Connie could swallow water and shoot it out of his eye. He didn’t mind her accent either, the teen actually thought it was cute, even more so when she got embarrassed about it. No Lukas was scared, scared that admitting he had feelings would ruin their friendship. He had unknowingly hurt it once already, and he didn’t want to hurt it again.

_“Fuck…what do I do.”_

…

Commandant Shadis observed as the two cadets zoomed past below him, focusing on the cadet with a short mop of black hair and a familiar face.

_“Jean Kirschtein and Lukas Schmidt, joint best in the class on ODM, the former is a natural, and the latter flies like he was born in the harness. Kirschtein shows promise for leadership of a tactical level but is hampered by being an insufferable smartass with a hair trigger temper. Schmidt is a great team-player and competent fighter but has a tendency to have no focus or tunnel vision with a streak hinging on suicidal.”_

Shadis never forgot a face, and even though the man never showed any emotion he fondly yet sadly remembered a face not so different from the cadets, only difference being the color of his hair.

…

Lukas sat on his bunk deep in thought, he needed advice, but he didn’t know what advice he needed or from whom. The teen ran through his options: Lukas trusted Jean but knew his friend was just as hopeless as he was in this topic, Connie was a no go for obvious reasons, this would fly completely over Eren’s head, and it was the wrong type of advice for Armin to answer. The black-haired boy then gazed across the bunks at the duo of a large blonde boy, and his much taller dark-haired friend. Reiner was a respectable guy and acted like the big brother nobody had and Bertholdt seemed to have a smart head on his shoulders despite being overly quiet.

The mop-haired teen hopped off his cot and walked over, Bertholdt asleep in some random position, and Reiner seeming to be deep in thought.

“Sunny day with a bit of overcast tomorrow?” Lukas started pointing at the formers sleeping form.

The large blonde teen looked up at him and chuckled acknowledging the joke, “Seems like it.” Reiner pushed his friend awake, “What’s up Lukas?”

The black-haired teen sighed a bit anxious, “Well ya see, I got this issue.”

Reiner squinted at him confused, as Bertholdt sat up, “What do you mean?”

Lukas gritted his teeth a tad bit, and scratched the temple of his head, “You know, you guys seem pretty confident with things…”

Bertholdt scratched his head, “Like with……ODM, or training?” he muttered.

“No…no” Lukas started mumbling, “With…uh…talking with girls?”

The taller teen visibly blushed a bit, while Reiner seemed shocked for a moment but composed himself, “I don’t understand. Schmidt I’ve seen you talk with plenty of girls…?”

The shorter teen looked down almost in shame, “Not like that…like you know…”

Bert’s eyes widened, “You mean like…”

“Yeah” Lukas smiled weakly, “like that.”

It took a moment for Reiner to catch up but when he did the boy stumbled back in shock, “I mean that’s kinda unbecoming of a soldier?” Reiner questioned albeit partially embarrassed.

“Oh?” Lukas responded scratching his head confused, “I just thought you guys would’ve asked out Krista or Annie by now?”

Both of the taller boys reeled back in shock, Bertholdt flying back into his bed and Reiner looking in complete shock with a nosebleed.

“Ok then?” Lukas looked puzzled, “Thanks anyway I guess?”

_“I need some air.”_

Lukas made a beeline for the door, and as he opened it, he was met by a clear cool starry night. The boy took a deep breath noticing a figure sitting on the staircase below him.

“Oh, hey Lukas.” The figure turned revealing it to be Marco.

“Hey Marco.” The shorter boy motioned towards the open spot next to his friend, “May I?”

The freckled boy smiled, “Be my guest.”

Lukas plopped himself down next to his taller friend. The two sat in silence for what seemed like awhile.

“Whatcha doing out here bud?” Lukas asked nonchalantly.

“You know, just enjoying the night. I like the quiet.” He turned to the shorter boy, “You?”

Lukas sighed, “Needed some air.”

A look of concern rose in the freckled boy’s face, “Everything alright?”

The black-haired boy didn’t feel the need to hold anything back from his friend, “I don’t know what to do?”

Marco looked knowingly at him, “Sasha?”

“Yeah.” Lukas replied, “I like her, actually I like her a lot, but I don’t want to ruin our friendship by telling her I have feelings.”

The freckled teen seemed to mull over the problem for a time in his head, “That first day we got here, and she got you pulled into that punishment with her, did you regret that?”

“No” the boy responded flatly.

“Why is that?”

Lukas thought it over for a moment, “After the fact, I just thought it was funny more than anything else…and I got to meet Sasha for the first time.”

“Hmm.” Marco mused, “and do you think Sasha regretted stealing that cupcake from the officer’s pantry when she found out it was your birthday last year?”

“No, I’d figure she wouldn’t have tried at all in that case.”

“Right” the freckled teen smiled, “and did you regret stealing her dinner to get her to talk to you?”

Lukas smiled, “No, because it got her to talk to me again.” The boy looked at his taller friend, “What’s your point Marco?”

His friend sighed, “Both of you took risks because you cared for each other, and the two of you understood that one another cared.” Marco paused for a moment before continuing as Lukas looked at the boy inquisitively, “Despite whether or not she reciprocates your feelings, she still cares about you enough that she’d forgive you either way.”

Lukas’s head cleared as he looked up at the clear night sky, his mind still in deep thought. The boy could see Marco doing much the same.

“Will you regret it if you don’t tell Sasha?”

Without a thought Lukas responded, “Yes.”

“Then there’s your answer.” Marco chuckled slightly.

Another moment passed as the two sat in silence, when suddenly the shorter boy chuckled in return, “Marco you’re one helluva guy, you know that right?”

The taller boy blushed a bit, “You’re not too bad yourself.”

Lukas looked at his friend putting a hand on the taller boy’s shoulder, “And you’re one helluva friend.”

…

The mess hall erupted with the sounds of the 104th conversing and eating their midday meals. Sasha Braus was busy partaking in the latter, a simple spread of assorted vegetables, diced potatoes, and a loaf of bread; all with her usual vigor though she did keep an ear to the conversations of her friends. Connie who sat directly next to her today, was spinning some tale about how he found Reiner trying to hide a bloody nose the previous night, and how the boy figured that someone got a good punch in on the blonde. Jean, who was seated across from Connie argued that it was probably nothing and remarked how simple it was to give someone a bloody nose. The two got heated and Marco who sat to the side of Jean tried to deescalate the situation, while the brunette noticed Lukas who sat on the other side of Connie was unusually quiet, seemingly in deep thought as the boy picked away at one of his potato chunks.

_“Well, that’s strange?”_

The brunette stared at the boy inquisitively before forcing herself to turn away. If she didn’t think about it, about him too much, the girl from Dauper could act normally, or what she thought was normally. In truth though, that was become a harder and harder thing. Sasha and Lukas were great friends, she knew that in her heart, and that’s what she wanted in the very least. The problem was that part of her that wanted more, the part of her that popped up when he smiled at her, or when he accidentally had a hand on the small of her back, or when she fell asleep on his shoulder. The brunette almost blushed at the thought of the latter, even more so when she recalled waking up as he carried her back to the girl’s barracks but pretending to still be asleep until they got to the door. It was beyond frustrating, because as much as she wanted their friendship, she wanted that ‘what if’ even more, and she felt selfish for it, after all, she wasn’t a Krista, or a Mikasa, or an Annie, she was her.

**_RING…RING_ **

The bell signifying the end of the lunch period sounded, and the majority of the recruits started to dispose of their scraps of food and file out of the mess hall. Jean and Connie, still heated at one another walked off in a rush, and before Marco got up to go chase after them, the brunette saw him give a small nod towards Lukas. As Sasha herself started to get up, she observed the boy still motionless and seated. Before the girl from Dauper had a chance to question this or even fully leave the table in fact, she heard Lukas speak up.

“Hey Sash, mind holding up for a minute.”

She froze for a moment but then out of concern for her friend sat back down, “Sure LuLu, what do you need?”

He turned towards her and immediately the brunette noticed Lukas’s face was a bright red, “Uh…so I don’t know how to say this.”

_“He’s blushing. Why is he blushing, Lukas doesn’t blush?”_

Sasha was already nervous, she herself didn’t know what was going on, but unconsciously she had an idea. It was her unconscious mind that nodded her head reassuring her friend to keep talking.

The teen nodded in return looking down for a moment, “And it’s my first time doing this kind of thing, so I’m going to try to get to the point…”

The girl was now smiling nervously, her face adopting the same reddish hue as Lukas’s.

_“Why am I smiling? What’s going on? What’s he trying to say, I don’t understand?”_

“Sasha, you’re special to me, and uh…” the boy was mumbling now as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, “I have feelings for you.”

The girl from Dauper felt like her whole world was standing still. Her face burned from how hard she was blushing and her hand which now lay on the table was shaking crazily out of pure nervousness. The brunette knew what she heard but she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it or not. Her whole body was in tunnel vision for founder knows how long until she felt something touch her shaking hand.

_“Bread?”_

Lukas still staring intently at her had placed the loaf of bread from his own lunch into her open hand. She looked at the loaf as she lifted it to her gaze, and then looked at him, his greyish-green eyes showing both concern and nervousness. In that moment her hand steadied, her face seemed to cool, and her tongue seemed to untie itself. The boy looked stunned when she tore a piece off the loaf and handed it back to him.

“I have feelings for you too.” Sasha replied before stuffing her piece of the loaf into her mouth, completely content with the fact that her other hand was intertwined with his beneath the table.


	10. THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: REFLECTION, THE NIGHT OF THE CLOSING CEREMONY

** CHAPTER 10 – THE 104TH TRAINING CORPS: REFLECTION, THE NIGHT OF THE CLOSING CEREMONY **

“Hands over your hearts!”

“Yes sir!” the 104th saluted, proudly answering in unison.

Only a spare number of elevated braziers lit the courtyard of the military headquarters of Trost, the flickering flames supplemented by the pale moonlight of the nighttime. Three years of preparation, and three years of training had come to this as the members of the cadet corps stood in formation, having reached the threshold of becoming fully fledged soldiers.

“From today, you will no longer be soldiers in training.” One of the head instructors spoke. “You now have three choices; the Garrison, where you will be protecting the cities and working to reinforce the walls, the Scouting Regiment, where you must be prepared to take on the Titans outside the walls, and the Military Police, where you will protect the people and preserve order at the side of the king.”

The instructor looked to the front of the formation were separated from the rest stood 10 recruits, the top ten in their class. “Naturally, the only ones who can join the Military Police are these top ten recruits.” He paused for a moment catching his breath, “Tenth, Sasha Braus. Ninth, Connie Springer. Eighth, Marco Bodt. Seventh, Lukas Schmidt. Sixth, Eren Yeager. Fifth, Jean Kirschtein. Fourth, Annie Leonhardt. Third, Bertholdt Hoover. Second, Reiner Braun. First, Mikasa Ackerman.”

…

“I did it!” Connie exclaimed, “I’ll be in the Military Police!”

“Now we don’t have to worry about food!” Sasha replied almost screaming.

The two sat at the table along with Jean, Marco and Lukas. The mess hall of Trost’s Military HQ was much larger than the one at their training camp, and at least this night it was loud and raucous in celebration. It was well deserved though, the four of them all making the top 10 qualifying the lot for the Military Police.

“I can understand these two.” Jean spoke up sitting alongside Connie, “…but how’d you end up placing behind Yeager Schmitty?”

“Does it matter?” the black-haired boy who sat beside Sasha replied, “I still qualified for the MP’s and I didn’t have to uh…brownnose like some people.” The boy put emphasis on the last part leaning towards his gray-haired friend with the playful jab.

Sasha laughed at her…boyfriends joke as the two boys started to throw their usual insults at each other. The brunette was still getting used to calling him by that title, but otherwise she was happy, ecstatic even. While neither her nor Lukas had any previous experience with this sort of thing, the latter seemed to pick it up quite well. Lukas, while not boastful about their relationship, walked around with a sense of pride while with her, like she was the best this in the world, and just like he had when they were friends, the boy never seemed a tad bit embarrassed by her antics. Sasha really appreciated that, to her nothing about their friendship had really changed, while except maybe the physical part of it, and of course the flirting. The former was something the huntress wasn’t accustomed too, the two agreeing to take it slow for her sake, not even having kissed on the lips yet. The girl from Dauper wanted that moment to be special, and to Lukas’s credit the boy adapted fairly well to the stipulation, instead resigning to kissing her on the forehead which she thought was sweet. The flirting on the other hand, while always being genuine, had also been added to the long list of pranks and jokes the two played on each other, though Lukas admittedly was way better at it than she was.

_“Sure, makes pranking him a whole lot harder.”_

“Mom…?” Lukas spoke in bewilderment beside her, “What are you doing here?”

A cold chill ran up Sasha’s spine. The huntress lauded herself on being able to read faces pretty well, and the look from the older woman struck her as one thing, knowing. Lukas’s mother only stood about an inch shorter than Sasha herself, but the woman walked with an imposing confidence that even among the masses of people who were now technically fully fledged soldiers marked her as the alpha predator, as the hunter, and she was looking Sasha dead in the eyes.

“Wanted to see my son on his big day.” Rhia Schmidt responded happily, warranting a chuckle from Jean. The woman caught this and quickly rustled up the taller boy’s hair, “Don’t think I forgot about you too Jeanie-Weanie.”

Connie laughed at this, earning the punch in the arm by Jean as Lukas eyed his mother inquisitively, “but how’d you get in here?”

Rhia faked a look of shock, “You afford me too little credit Luka…” at this the boy squinted his eyes to which his mother relented, “You know I’m the military’s favorite supplier of liquid courage, just so happens the higher-ups don’t like to trouble themselves walking to the other side of the district for a little pick me up, so they like it brought to them, and all the better for me, they like it in bulk. So, two birds with one stone.”

“Oh.” Lukas replied.

Sasha could see the woman dividing her gaze between her son and the brunette herself, eyes drilling into her, reading her every action, judging her. Rhia gave her son a big hug as the boy got up, and she spoke once more. “On that note, I hope you four big strong men wouldn’t mind helping a petite lady like myself move some caskets of wine off the cart outside, would you?”

Jean, Marco and Connie relented making their way to the entrance. Lukas followed but paused as he saw his mother take a seat across from Sasha. “Mom, what are you…?”

“Just gonna have some girl talk, nothing you’d want to listen too. You know hair, make-up…” the woman turned towards the brunette, “…boys.”

Lukas remained still, her boyfriends face evident of worry and concern. Sasha while absolutely terrified now of the woman who sat before her, also knew that you couldn’t let a predator know you were afraid of it if you wanted to survive. She had to tough it out and put her best foot forward so the girl from Dauper nodded reassuredly to the black-haired boy. He was hesitant in response, but as always, he trusted her and walked towards the exit.

Even after her son had left the building, Rhia Schmidt stared into the girl’s eyes, not saying a word but her gaze cold, calculating, and inquisitive. It seemed an eternity before the older woman spoke a word.

“Rhia Schmidt.” She held her hand out introducing herself.

The brunette clasped the hand, it felt distinctly feminine, but strong and calloused. “Sasha Braus.” She replied.

“So how long have you been seeing my son?” the woman replied getting to the point.

The girl shuddered for a moment but answered, “A month.”

“Hmmm.” Rhia squinted at her, “He hasn’t been an ass, right?”

“What…no!?!” Sasha was surprised by the question, “Lukas has been real sweet to me, caring and protective too…like he always has.”

The woman’s face relaxed a touch, a hint of a smile coming from the side of her mouth, “Ah, that boy, just like his father.”

The two sat in silence for a moment, the older woman’s demeanor seeming to warm more, “So you don’t have to tell me but…” she started, “have you two done anything yet…?”

Sasha looked at the woman confused, “What do you mean?”

“Physical dear” Rhia chuckled in response “, but from your response I’d bet that you haven’t.”

“NO!!!” The girl from Dauper flew back in embarrassment, her face flushed red, “We haven’t even kissed yet.”

“Nothing wrong with that.” The woman gave a warm smile which calmed Sasha’s nerves surprisingly. It was a genuine look, though different from that of the woman’s son, “You want it to mean something, don’t you?”

Again, Sasha looked shocked, “Yeah.” She weakly replied, “how’d you know?”

The black-haired woman sighed, “I was young once, not exactly how I went about it, but given how much Lukas is like his daddy, I’d wager he’s a romantic as well, which works well for you.”

The girl sat for a moment digesting the information but then mumbled out, “So you’re not…you don’t…think bad of me?”

“Sweetie…” Rhia laid her hand softly on the brunette’s, “When I saw you in my pub a couple months back, I could tell within five minutes that you two had feelings for one another. I’ll be the first one to admit that my boy can be a hardheaded smartass who likes the occasional fight, mostly because he gets that from me, but he’s also an equally hardheaded loyal kid who would go out of his way to make sure all of his friends are ok, and I’m proud to say he gets that from his father. How I saw Lukas with you that night, hell how I saw Lukas with you when I walked in was the happiest I’ve seen him in a long while.”

Sasha smiled at that, though the mentions of her boyfriends’ father piqued her interest. Lukas never mentioned him while talking with her, but she gathered the impression he was no longer in the picture. “Why wasn’t he happy? Does…that have to do with his father?”

The girl was expecting some rash response from the woman, but instead Rhia sighed once more, a touch of sadness on the mother’s face, “It’s not for me to tell, but I suspect you’ll find out sooner or later.”

Sasha left it at that, then concentrating on her last shred of doubt, “So why this act…” she questioned, “if you had no problem with me at all?

“For one, I wanted to meet you anyway. Luka’s never had a girlfriend and I wanted to meet the girl who wooed my boy. Seeing as you felled that massive boar in the forest and drained nearly a quarter of my weekly stock of bread in an hour, I was shocked which is a rarity for me, but I was not disappointed. Two, even though I was fairly certain of your intentions at first glance, I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence as a mother if I didn’t talk to you myself, and congratulations you just passed.”

Sasha squinted, “What did it for you?”

Rhia smiled warmly, “You didn’t just care that he was happy in the here and now, despite how I could’ve responded to what is a sensitive issue, you asked why he hadn’t been happy.”

Sasha smiled at that too, but before she could respond the older woman spoke, a devilish grin appearing on her face, “And the final reason for this whole charade…is that I enjoy messing around with my son. I’ll admit the look of concern in his eyes that he had for you was admirable, but the fear that was there too…” she exclaimed. “Even after all this time, I still got it!”

The brunette let out a little laugh in response, and innocent question that had been bugging her having come to mind, “Ummm, this may sound like a weird question…” she started garnering the woman’s attention, “but how do I make him uncomfortable?”

Rhia Schmidt immediately smiled at the girl, “I knew I liked you!” she exclaimed, “Having trouble getting one over on him, aren’t ya?

“Maybe…?”

The woman nodded in response, crossing her arms, “Well Lukas has developed a very shameless attitude, likely because I terrorized him most of his childhood, but there is one simple thing that’s seemed to throw him off all these year…”

The older woman leaned over the table and whispered into Sasha’s ear. The girls mouth dropped, her response dumbfounded, “IT’S THAT EASY!!!”

…

Jean Kirschtein walked down the corridor leading from one of the headquarters many storerooms back towards the main mess hall, Lukas at his side. After finishing moving the load of casks brought to the place by the latter’s mother, the duo convinced the group of boys to partake in a celebratory shot. Having grown up in a pub, Lukas knew how to sneak a few sips from a cask and make it seem like it hadn’t been tampered with and because of this, it hadn’t been the first time the duo had tried pulling this stunt. The plan had gone off without a hitch, the boys hadn’t been caught but Connie understandably didn’t understand the difference between wine and vodka, the latter of which the boys had found a smaller supply of while moving the stock. The spirit, even in its minor amount had made the boy sick, and Marco being the good Samaritan he was took the bald-headed teen to the bathroom to puke back out the substance.

“I don’t see what his problem was?” Jean spoke, “Wasn’t even that strong.”

Lukas shrugged chuckling, “Connie’s smaller, probably hit him harder.”

The two boys laughed as they reentered the mess hall. Jean saw his friend’s gaze shoot to the table they’d been seated at, relief washing over his face after seeing the brunette girl still sitting there, seemingly nothing happened to her. Jean kept a blank expression, he didn’t understand his best friend’s fascination with Potato Girl, though he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t picked up on it early on, he’d also be lying if he said he hadn’t bet Connie that the two would get with each other dropping a week’s load of lookout duties on the bald-headed teen once he won, after all, Connie was a horrible better. No, Lukas was either nonchalant about everything or dead set on one thing, and either way was easy to read, at least for Jean. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t happy for Lukas, as much as Sasha annoyed him, which was still a considerable amount, his best friend had a knack for getting him to warm up to people, and although he wouldn’t admit it, getting people to warm up to him as well. Yes, with the exclusion of Marco who the grey-haired teen could even admit was his friend, Jean could see himself tolerating Connie, and even Sasha, at least for Lukas’s sake.

“You boys took your sweet time.” Rhia spoke up as the two sat back down at the table, “where’s your buddies?”

“Connie and Marco had to run by the bathroom real quick.” Lukas responded to his mother.

_“He’s not wrong…”_

Something caught Jean’s vision at that moment, the boy’s eyes shifting to see Sasha seated beside Lukas once more lifting her arm behind the teen’s head outside of his friend’s vision. As the girl’s hand approached her pointer finger extended towards Lukas’s ear. In that moment the gray-haired boy realized that the brunette’s finger was wet with what looked to be…saliva. As Jean pieced together the situation, a moment later Sasha shoved her finger into Lukas’s ear. The reaction was immediate as Lukas squirmed into a shock and fell into the empty bench beside him, both Sasha and Rhia bursting out into laughter, and even Jean giving a small chuckle, despite the look of defeated annoyance plastering his friends face.

“Traded notes I see.” The boy said flatly, still laid back on the bench, “See that talk went well.”

“Extraordinarily…LuLu” Rhia laughed emphasizing the last word, “I like this one.” The older woman motioned to Sasha, “You hurt her, and I’ll take you out of this world a lot more painfully than I brought you in!”

Jean saw Lukas roll his eyes as Sasha bent over his form and poked his cheek, “I win!” she said sweetly, but before she sat back up the girl took an audible sniff, “Why does your mouth smell like the camp infirmary?”

Before either of the boys could mutter a response, Jean felt his scalp get grabbed harshly, Rhia turning the teens head towards her before taking the aroma in herself. The older woman let go of Jean’s head as harshly as she had grabbed it, her eyes narrowing, “Oi shitheads, so that was what was taking you so long huh?”

Jean saw Lukas develop a shit-eating grin, “Ma it was barely anything, they won’t even notice, just like they won’t notice that you watered all their alcohol down.”

Rhia held her angered expression, “I should whoop both your asses right here, drinking and then assuming I’d undercut my customers.”

Lukas looked at his mother with a blank expression, “Ma, you’ve had me filling up casks with water from since I was 8, no one drinks water at a pub…” the boy pointed at Jean, “Hell, you had Jean helping me half the time too.”

“It really was barely anything Ms. Schmidt.” The gray-haired boy added.

“Shitheads, really too smart for your own good aren’t ya?” the older woman’s gaze softened, wiping a strand of her black hair from her face, then rising from her seat “I’m an enterprising woman!”

Lukas smiled, “Of course mom.”

“Anyways…” the woman rounded the table then giving her son another hug, “Should probably go get my payment from the officer’s mess, you two come around tomorrow when you get the time huh?” Rhia motioned to Sasha as well.

“That would be great!” the brunette exclaimed.

“I expect to see you too, Jeanie-Weanie!” Rhia added ruffling up the taller boy’s hair once more.

Jean scoffed out a reply and the woman still smiling, sauntered off out of the mess hall. The trio went on with small talk for a while, Marco and Connie returned and Sasha occasionally tried to wet willy Lukas but to no avail. Eventually the noise in the room changed as attention shifted to the side of the room. The gray-haired teen looked to see Eren speaking to Thomas, the latter amazed that the teen from Shiganshina despite making the top 10 planned to turn down the opportunity to join the MP’s in favor of joining the Scouting Regiment.

_“Tch, fucking insane idiot.”_

Thomas argued the boys point mentioning that the reclamation mission had decimated 20 percent of the wall’s population, to which Eren went on a tirade about how none of that mattered. It was during this that the gray-haired teen glanced across the table at his friend. Jean’s demeanor changed as he saw Lukas’s face, blank, not blinking, and staring into nothingness. The taller boy then put two and two together given the conversation and suddenly he felt a pang of concern for his friend. Before he could interact though, Lukas got up quietly and made his way to the door leading outside, and Jean knew there was nothing he could do.

Soon after the boy saw Sasha take notice of her boyfriends’ sudden departure, the girl also noticing the look on Lukas’s face. Taking action, the girl started to get up until Jean grabbed her by the arm, “Sasha, wait.”

The brunette looked at him confusedly, if she wasn’t already concerned, she would have been by the fact that Jean had actually acknowledged her by her own name, “But…”

“He’ll be fine.” Jean responded solemnly, “Lukas just needs some air.”

Sasha looked down for a moment, Marco and Connie now having taken notice of their friends exit. The girl looked back up at Jean and spoke softly, “Lukas’s dad, is that what this is about?”

Jean closed his eyes, a touch of annoyance building in him. He hated thinking about that day, after what he and Lukas saw, it changed him, but it broke his friend, and rightfully so. The teen didn’t want to tell this story, but he knew Sasha wouldn’t take that for an excuse, and honestly if he were in her position’ he’d do the same. Sighing he dropped roughly onto his seat, the table’s eyes on him.

“Anyone of you tells what I’m about to tell you to anyone…” Jean began with a cold and serious tone, “…I will beat the living shit out of you.”

With that statement, the two other boys complied, and Sasha slowly sat down once more. Jean cleared his throat and continued, “Lukas’s dad, Daniel Schmidt, was one of the higher-ranking members of the Scouts.”

Connie mumbled out silently, “Was?”

“The…headstone…” Marco added, “that was…”

“Yes.” Jean replied, pausing for a moment “It was five years ago, the reclamation mission to take back Wall Maria had been gone for around two weeks and the Scouts had been assigned to assist the mission.”

Jean shook his head, memories rushing back to the teen, as the trio looked at him, “When the bells rang, Lukas and I had been walking back from school, stupidly we had thought the mission had somehow succeeded.” He gave a pained laugh.

Sasha spoke up, “When Thomas said only 20% of people came back that day?”

Jean nodded, “They all looked like ghosts.” The boy sighed, “But we didn’t know that at the time. Lukas idolized his dad, and honestly so did I, so when he suggested we run here to surprise him, I agreed.”

“I’m surprised they let you guys in?” Marco questioned.

“They didn’t.” Jean answered, “We got into a lot of trouble back then being in places we weren’t suppose too so when we saw a small open window at ground level leading into the basement, we slipped right in.”

“But…” It was Connie this time, “doesn’t the basement act as the morgue more the Garrison infirmary here?”

Jean nodded once more, “There wasn’t many bodies they recovered in the first place during that mission, but if anyone survived, it would have been Schmitty’s dad, or so we thought. The man was imposing the few times I saw him using ODM, and we were pretty sure he was part of the Special Operations Squad at some point.”

“That’s why you and Lukas are so good at ODM huh?” Sasha remarked.

Jean gave a weak smile, “We used to run, and climb buildings so much just to emulate that you know?” the gray-haired boy chuckled softly, “Lukas even stole his dad’s ODM once. We didn’t get far of course, hit the side of a building so hard Lukas broke his wrist, and I dislocated my arm.”

The door slammed as the group looked up to see Eren storm out, seemingly also upset, quickly followed out by Armin and Mikasa. For once Jean didn’t pay them any mind and instead continued on, “We had heard a person coming in, so we hid. One of the Garrison had rolled in a dead body on a gurney, but luckily he left soon after that.”

Jean took a long pause before continuing, his eyes almost watering, “We didn’t know why we decided to look at that body, but……I can’t ever forget what we saw.”

The gray-haired teen squeezed his arm into a fist looking down, “There was no color to the body, a bit of blood was still coming from his dads’ mouth, but below his waist, there was…nothing. They put a sheet over that part, but even then, you could see how much was missing.”

Jean scanned the table, Connie looked absolutely terrified, Marco looked down visibly shaken yet saddened, and Sasha faced away, eyes towards the door, and a hint of tears in her eyes. The Trost native cupped his face in his hands and steadied himself. After a moment he calmed and looked back up eager to finish this tainted memory, “I don’t know how long we stood there before they caught us, but even as they took us away, Lukas still had that same shock on his face. I wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral, and the next time I saw him he seemed like he recovered but I could tell his attitude had changed. Sure, it changed my outlook, you wonder why I can’t stand Eren, but for Lukas, it hurt him a lot, it still does, and I can’t imagine it’ll never not hurt him.”

…

Lukas stood leaned up against the side of a building looking up at the night sky. He had calmed himself once more, and now stood in reflection. Tomorrow he would have to choose a path, and even now at the 11th hour the teen was conflicted. He and Jean were supposed to follow each other to the Military Police, and now they were both top 10 all they had to do was sign the dotted line. What’s more was, Sasha was joining the MP’s, and the black-haired teen was quickly finding it hard living a life without his food loving girlfriend. Even Marco and Connie had both made the cut, his two friends also with intentions of joining the Military Police. Despite all the contrary though, Lukas still felt that pang, despite everything, despite being terrified of the alternative, despite being within a stones throw of the location where five years that image of his father was burned into his memory, it was another image of his father telling him that he wanted to do it, that he need to.

The teens internal struggle was halted by the sudden appearance of the trio from Shiganshina, who had walked out only a moment ago and sat down the way from him, unaware of the teens’ presence. For awhile they seemed to have a personal conversation until a shooting star caught everyone’s. With that Lukas approached garnering the trio’s attention.

“That was a nice speech you had back in there.” The boy spoke directly to Eren.

The shorter teen scoffed, still visibly upset, “What does it matter to you, you’ll be joining the Military Police like everyone else.”

The Trost native looked at the sky once more, “My dad was in the Scouts…” the taller teen sighed, “I think he would’ve like you Eren.”

Eren’s face perked up, his eyes surprised at the revelation, Armin look at him inquisitively, and even Mikasa looked somewhat surprised.

It was the smaller blonde who then answered, “That means…”

Lukas nodded, “He didn’t come back.”

With that the teen took his leave, the trio sitting behind him stunned into silence. Lukas passed through the door into the mess hall once more and not a second later he felt a figure collide into him, familiar brunette hair flooding his vision, and a pair of arms gripping him tightly into a hug. He returned the gesture laying his head into Sasha’s shoulder. A minute later a familiar voice called out to him from a couple tables over.

“Lukas, you alright?” Jean spoke, concern in his voice.

“Yeah.” He muttered just loud enough for his friend to hear.


End file.
